URDING  DAVIS 


ROBERT  ERNEST  COWAN 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 


Burnham  and  Commissioner  Armstrong  Escaping  After  Shooting  the  High- 
priest  Umlimo. 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF 
FORTUNE 


BY 

RICHARD   HARDING  DAVIS    /?£</-/ 

*5r 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1906 


Pi  o" 


COPYRIGHT,  1906,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published,  November,  1906 


TROW  DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AMD   BOOKBINDING  COMPANY 
NEW   YORK 


Bftoofoh  Ubrwy 


CONTENTS 

i 

PAGE 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HENRY  RONALD  DOUGLAS  MAC!VER      i 

II 
BARON  JAMES  HARDEN-HICKEY 32 

III 
WINSTON  SPENCER  CHURCHILL 75 

IV 
CAPTAIN  PHILO  NORTON  MCGIFFIN     .       .        .        .120 


GENERAL   WILLIAM   WALKER,   THE    KING    OF    THE 
FILIBUSTERS 145 

VI 
MAJOR  BURNHAM,  CHIEF  OF  SCOUTS  .        .       .       .191 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

BURNHAM   AND    COMMISSIONER   ARMSTRONG    ESCAPING   AFTER 

SHOOTING  THE  HIGH-PRIEST  UMLIMO  .       .       .      Frontispiece 

FACING 
)  PAGE 

MAClVER  IN  THE  UNIFORM  OF  THE  MEXICAN  EMPIRE    .      .      1 6 
BREVET  BESTOWING  THE  CROSS  OF  TAKOVA  ON  GENERAL 

MAClVER   BY  THE   SERVIAN   GOVERNMENT  .          .         .         26 

MACIVER  AS  GENERAL  OF  BRIGADE  IN  SERVIAN  UNIFORM      .      28 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HENRY  RONALD  DOUGLAS  MAC!VER  AS  HE 

Is  TO-DAY 30 

THE  ISLAND  OF  TRINIDAD,  OFF  THE  COAST  OF  BRAZIL     .       .  42 

TOPOGRAPHICAL  MAP  OF  THE  ISLAND  OF  TRINIDAD      .       .  44 

THE  ORDER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  TRINIDAD        ....  54 

BARON  HARDEN-HICKEY,  KING  JAMES  I  OF  TRINIDAD  .       .  72 

WINSTON  CHURCHILL  IN  THE  UNIFORM  OF  THE  FOURTH 
QUEEN'S  OWN  HUSSARS,  AT  THE  AGE  OF  TWENTY-ONE, 
WHEN  HE  FOUGHT  WITH  THE  SPANIARDS  ...  76 

WINSTON  CHURCHILL  IN  THE  UNIFORM  OF  LIEUTENANT  OF 

SOUTH  AFRICAN  LIGHT  HORSE .92 

WINSTON  CHURCHILL  AS  WAR  CORRESPONDENT  IN  SOUTH 

AFRICA  AT  THE  TIME  OF  His  CAPTURE     ....      98 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


WINSTON  CHURCHILL  LANDING  PROM  THE  STEAMER  "INDUNA" 

AT  DURBAN  AFTER  His  ESCAPE  FROM  THE  BOER  PRISON  .     108 

WINSTON  LEONARD  SPENCER  CHURCHILL,  BRITISH  UNDER- 
SECRETARY FOR  THE  COLONIES 118 

CAPTAIN  McGirriN  ON  GRADUATION  FROM  THE  NAVAL  ACAD- 
EMY AT  TWENTY-THREE 128 

MCGIFFIN  AS  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  THE  CHINESE  NAVAL  COL- 
LEGE, AT  THE  AGE  OF  THIRTY-TWO 140 

CAPTAIN  MCGIFFIN  IN  HOSPITAL  AFTER  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE 
YALU — SHOWING  DAMAGE  TO  CLOTHES  DUE  TO  CONCUS- 
SION    ...  142 

GENERAL  WILLIAM  WALKER 146 

ROUTES  OF  WALKER'S  THREE  FILIBUSTERING  EXPEDITIONS  .     188 

MAJOR  F.  R.  BURNHAM;  TAKEN  ON  THE  DAY  THE  KING 

DECORATED  HIM  WITH  THE  D.  S.  0 228 

LATEST  PORTRAIT  OF  BURNHAM;  TAKEN  THIS  YEAR  IN  MEXICO 

BY  A  MEMBER  OF  His  EXPEDITION 232 


viii 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 


MAJOR-GENERAL    HENRY    RONALD    DOUGLAS 
MACIVER 

ANY  sunny  afternoon,  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
or  at  night  in  the  table  d'hote  res- 
taurants of  University  Place,  you  may  meet 
the  soldier  of  fortune  who  of  all  his  brothers 
in  arms  now  living  is  the  most  remarkable. 
You  may  have  noticed  him ;  a  stiffly  erect,  dis- 
tinguished-looking man,  with  gray  hair,  an 
imperial  of  the  fashion  of  Louis  Napoleon, 
fierce  blue  eyes,  and  across  his  forehead  a 
sabre  cut. 

This  is  Henry  Ronald  Douglas  Maclver,  for 
some  time  in  India  an  ensign  in  the  Sepoy 
mutiny;  in  Italy,  lieutenant  under  Garibaldi; 
in  Spain,  captain  under  Don  Carlos;  in  our 
Civil  War,  major  in  the  Confederate  army; 
in  Mexico,  lieutenant-colonel  under  the  Em- 


REAL   SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

peror  Maximilian;  colonel  under  Napoleon 
III,  inspector  of  cavalry  for  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt,  and  chief  of  cavalry  and  general  of 
brigade  of  the  army  of  King  Milan  of  Servia. 
These  are  only  a  few  of  his  military  titles.  In 
1884  was  published  a  book  giving  the  story 
of  his  life  up  to  that  year.  It  was  called  "  Un- 
der Fourteen  Flags."  If  to-day  General  Mac- 
Iver  were  to  reprint  the  book,  it  would  be 
called  "  Under  Eighteen  Flags/' 

Maclver  was  born  on  Christmas  Day,  1841, 
at  sea,  a  league  off  the  shore  of  Virginia.  His 
mother  was  Miss  Anna  Douglas  of  that  State ; 
Ronald  Maclver,  his  father,  was  a  Scot,  a 
Ross-shire  gentleman,  a  younger  son  of  the 
chief  of  the  Clan  Maclver.  Until  he  was  ten 
years  old  young  Maclver  played  in  Virginia 
at  the  home  of  his  father.  Then,  in  order 
that  he  might  be  educated,  he  was  shipped  to 
Edinburgh  to  an  uncle,  General  Donald  Gra- 
ham. After  five  years  his  uncle  obtained  for 
him  a  commission  as  ensign  in  the  Honourable 
East  India  Company,  and  at  sixteen,  when 
other  boys  are  preparing  for  college,  Mac- 
lver was  in  the  Indian  Mutiny,  fighting,  not 
for  a  flag,  nor  a  country,  but  as  one  fights  a 


MAJOR-GENERAL   MACIVER 

wild  animal,  for  his  life.  He  was  wounded 
in  the  arm,  and,  with  a  sword,  cut  over  the 
head.  As  a  safeguard  against  the  sun  the 
boy  had  placed  inside  his  helmet  a  wet  towel. 
This  saved  him  to  fight  another  day,  but  even 
with  that  protection  the  sword  sank  through 
the  helmet,  the  towel,  and  into  the  skull.  To- 
day you  can  see  the  scar.  He  was  left  in  the 
road  for  dead,  and  even  after  his  wounds  had 
healed,  was  six  weeks  in  the  hospital. 

This  rough  handling  at  the  very  start  might 
have  satisfied  some  men,  but  in  the  very  next 
war  Maclver  was  a  volunteer  and  wore  the 
red  shirt  of  Garibaldi.  He  remained  at  the 
front  throughout  that  campaign,  and  until 
within  a  few  years  there  has  been  no  cam- 
paign of  consequence  in  which  he  has  not 
taken  part.  He  served  in  the  Ten  Years' 
War  in  Cuba,  in  Brazil,  in  Argentina,  in 
Crete,  in  Greece,  twice  in  Spain  in  Carlist 
revolutions,  in  Bosnia,  and  for  four  years  in 
our  Civil  War  under  Generals  Jackson  and 
Stuart  around  Richmond.  In  this  great  war 
he  was  four  times  wounded. 

It  was  after  the  surrender  of  the  Confed- 
erate Army,  that,  with  other  Southern  officers, 

3 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

he  served  under  Maximilian  in  Mexico;  in 
Egypt,  and  in  France.  Whenever  in  any  part 
of  the  world  there  was  fighting,  or  the  rumor 
of  fighting,  the  procedure  of  the  general  in- 
variably was  the  same.  He  would  order  him- 
self to  instantly  depart  for  the  front,  and  on 
arriving  there  would  offer  to  organize  a  for- 
eign legion.  The  command  of  this  organiza- 
tion always  was  given  to  him.  But  the  for- 
eign legion  was  merely  the  entering  wedge. 
He  would  soon  show  that  he  was  fitted  for  a 
better  command  than  a  band  of  undisciplined 
volunteers,  and  would  receive  a  commission 
in  the  regular  army.  In  almost  every  com- 
mand in  which  he  served  that  is  the  manner 
in  which  promotion  came.  Sometimes  he  saw 
but  little  fighting,  sometimes  he  should  have 
died  several  deaths,  each  of  a  nature  more 
unpleasant  than  the  others.  For  in  war  the 
obvious  danger  of  a  bullet  is  but  a  three  hun- 
dred to  one  shot,  while  in  the  pack  against 
the  combatant  the  jokers  are  innumerable. 
And  in  the  career  of  the  general  the  unfore- 
seen adventures  are  the  most  interesting.  A 
man  who  in  eighteen  campaigns  has  played 
his  part  would  seem  to  have  earned  exemption 

4 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

from  any  other  risks,  but  often  it  was  outside 
the  battle-field  that  Maclver  encountered  the 
greatest  danger.  He  fought  several  duels,  in 
two  of  which  he  killed  his  adversary;  several 
attempts  were  made  to  assassinate  him,  and 
while  on  his  way  to  Mexico  he  was  captured 
by  hostile  Indians.  On  returning  from  an  ex- 
pedition in  Cuba  he  was  cast  adrift  in  an  open 
boat  and  for  days  was  without  food. 

Long  before  I  met  General  Maclver  I  had 
read  his  book  and  had  heard  of  him  from 
many  men  who  had  met  him  in  many  differ- 
ent lands  while  engaged  in  as  many  different 
undertakings.  Several  of  the  older  war  corre- 
spondents knew  him  intimately;  Bennett  Bur- 
leigh  of  the  Telegraph  was  his  friend,  and 
E.  F.  Knight  of  the  Times  was  one  of  those 
who  volunteered  for  a  filibustering  expedition 
which  Maclver  organized  against  New  Guinea. 
The  late  Colonel  Ochiltree  of  Texas  told  me 
tales  of  Maclver's  bravery,  when  as  young 
men  they  were  fellow  officers  in  the  Southern 
Army,  and  Stephen  Bonsai  had  met  him  when 
Maclver  was  United  States  Consul  at  Denia  in 
Spain.  When  Maclver  arrived  at  this  post,  the 
ex-consul  refused  to  vacate  the  Consulate,  and 

s 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

Maclver  wished  to  settle  the  difficulty  with 
duelling  pistols.  As  Denia  is  a  small  place, 
the  inhabitants  feared  for  their  safety,  and 
Bonsai,  who  was  our  charge  d'affaires  then, 
was  sent  from  Madrid  to  adjust  matters. 
Without  bloodshed  he  got  rid  of  the  ex-consul, 
and  later  Maclver  so  endeared  himself  to  the 
Denians  that  they  begged  the  State  Depart- 
ment to  retain  him  in  that  place  for  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life. 

Before  General  Maclver  was  appointed  to 
a  high  position  at  the  St.  Louis  Fair,  I  saw 
much  of  him  in  New  York.  His  room  was 
in  a  side  street  in  an  old-fashioned  boarding- 
house,  and  overlooked  his  neighbors'  backyard 
and  a  typical  New  York  City  sumac  tree ;  but 
when  the  general  talked  one  forgot  he  was 
within  a  block  of  the  Elevated,  and  roamed 
over  all  the  world.  On  his  bed  he  would 
spread  out  wonderful  parchments,  with 
strange,  heathenish  inscriptions,  with  great 
seals,  with  faded  ribbons.  These  were  signed 
by  Sultans,  Secretaries  of  War,  Emperors, 
filibusters.  They  were  military  commissions, 
titles  of  nobility,  brevets  for  decorations,  in- 
structions and  commands  from  superior  offi- 

6 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

cers.  Translated  the  phrases  ran :  "  Impos- 
ing special  confidence  in,"  "  we  appoint,"  or 
"  create,"  or  "  declare,"  or  "  In  recognition  of 
services  rendered  to  our  person,"  or  "  coun- 
try," or  "  cause,"  or  "  For  bravery  on  the  field 
of  battle  we  bestow  the  Cross " 

As  must  a  soldier,  the  general  travels 
"  light,"  and  all  his  worldly  possessions  were 
crowded  ready  for  mobilization  into  a  small 
compass.  He  had  his  sword,  his  field  blanket, 
his  trunk,  and  the  tin  despatch  boxes  that  held 
his  papers.  From  these,  like  a  conjurer,  he 
would  draw  souvenirs  of  all  the  world.  From 
the  embrace  of  faded  letters,  he  would  unfold 
old  photographs,  daguerreotypes,  and  minia- 
tures of  fair  women  and  adventurous  men: 
women  who  now  are  queens  in  exile,  men  who, 
lifted  on  waves  of  absinthe,  still,  across  a  cafe 
table,  tell  how  they  will  win  back  a  crown. 

Once  in  a  written  document  the  general  did 
me  the  honor  to  appoint  me  his  literary  execu- 
tor, but  as  he  is  young,  and  as  healthy  as  my- 
self, it  never  may  be  my  lot  to  perform  such  an 
unwelcome  duty.  And  to-day  all  one  can 
write  of  him  is  what  the  world  can  read  in 
"Under  Fourteen  Flags,"  and  some  of  the 

7 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

"  foot-notes  to  history  "  which  I  have  copied 
from  his  scrap-book.  This  scrap-book  is  a 
wonderful  volume,  but  owing  to  "  political " 
and  other  reasons,  for  the  present,  of  the  many 
clippings  from  newspapers  it  contains  there 
are  only  a  few  I  am  at  liberty  to  print.  And 
from  them  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  choice.  To 
sketch  in  a  few  thousand  words  a  career  that 
had  developed  under  Eighteen  Flags  is  in  its 
very  wealth  embarrassing. 

Here  is  one  story,  as  told  by  the  scrap-book, 
of  an  expedition  that  failed.  That  it  failed 
was  due  to  a  British  Cabinet  Minister ;  for  had 
Lord  Derby  possessed  the  imagination  of  the 
Soldier  of  Fortune,  his  Majesty's  dominions 
might  now  be  the  richer  by  many  thousands 
of  square  miles  and  many  thousands  of  black 
subjects. 

On  October  29,  1883,  the  following  ap- 
peared in  the  London  Standard:  "The  New 
Guinea  Exploration  and  Colonization  Com- 
pany is  already  chartered,  and  the  first  expe- 
dition expects  to  leave  before  Christmas." 
"The  prospectus  states  settlers  intending  to 
join  the  first  party  must  contribute  one  hun- 
dred pounds  toward  the  company.  This  sub- 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

scription  will  include  all  expenses  for  passage 
money.  Six  months'  provisions  will  be  pro- 
vided, together  with  tents  and  arms  for  pro- 
tection. Each  subscriber  of  one  hundred 
pounds  is  to  obtain  a  certificate  entitling  him 
to  one  thousand  acres." 

The  view  of  the  colonization  scheme  taken 
by  the  Times  of  London,  of  the  same  date,  is 
less  complaisant.  "  The  latest  commercial 
sensation  is  a  proposed  company  for  the  seizure 
of  New  Guinea.  Certain  adventurous  gentle- 
men are  looking  out  for  one  hundred  others 
who  have  money  and  a  taste  for  buccaneer- 
ing. When  the  company  has  been  completed, 
its  shareholders  are  to  place  themselves  under 
military  regulations,  sail  in  a  body  for  New 
Guinea,  and  without  asking  anybody's  leave, 
seize  upon  the  island  and  at  once,  in  some 
unspecified  way,  proceed  to  realize  large  prof- 
its. If  the  idea  does  not  suggest  compari- 
sons with  the  large  designs  of  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  it  is  at  least  not  unworthy  of  Cap- 
tain Kidd." 

When  we  remember  the  manner  in  which 
some  of  the  colonies  of  Great  Britain  were 
acquired,  the  Times  seems  almost  squeamish. 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF   FORTUNE 

In  a  Melbourne  paper,  June,   1884,  is  the 
following  paragraph : 

"  Toward  the  latter  part  of  1883  the  Government  of 
Queensland  planted  the  flag  of  Great  Britain  on  the 
shores  of  New  Guinea.  When  the  news  reached  Eng- 
land it  created  a  sensation.  The  Earl  of  Derby,  Sec- 
retary for  the  Colonies,  refused,  however,  to  sanction 
the  annexation  of  New  Guinea,  and  in  so  doing  acted 
contrary  to  the  sincere  wish  of  every  right-thinking 
Anglo-Saxon  under  the  Southern  Cross. 

"  While  the  subsequent  correspondence  between  the 
Home  and  Queensland  governments  was  going  on, 
Brigadier-General  H.  R.  Maclver  originated  and  or- 
ganized the  New  Guinea  Exploration  and  Colonization 
Company,  in  London,  with  a  view  to  establishing  set- 
tlements on  the  island.  The  company,  presided  over 
by  General  Beresford  of  the  British  Army,  and  having 
an  eminently  representative  and  influential  board  of 
directors,  had  a  capital  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds,  and  placed  the  supreme  command  of 
the  expedition  in  the  hands  of  General  Maclver.  Not- 
withstanding the  character  of  the  gentlemen  compos- 
ing the  board  of  directors,  and  the  truly  peaceful 
nature  of  the  expedition,  his  Lordship  informed  Gen- 
eral Maclver  that  in  the  event  of  the  latter's  attempt- 
ing to  land  on  New  Guinea,  instructions  would  be 
sent  to  the  officer  in  command  of  her  Majesty's  fleet 
in  the  Western  Pacific  to  fire  upon  the  company's 
vessel.  This  meant  that  the  expedition  would  be  dealt 
with  as  a  filibustering  one." 

In  Judy,  September  21,  1887,  appears: 


10 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

"  We  all  recollect  the  treatment  received  by  Briga- 
dier-General Macl.  in  the  action  he  took  with  respect 
to  the  annexation  of  New  Guinea.  The  General,  who 
is  a  sort  of  Pizarro,  with  a  dash  of  DArtagnan,  was 
treated  in  a  most  scurvy  manner  by  Lord  Derby.  Had 
Maclver  not  been  thwarted  in  his  enterprise,  the  whole 
of  New  Guinea  would  now  have  been  under  the  British 
flag,  and  we  should  not  be  cheek-by-jowl  with  the 
Germans,  as  we  are  in  too  many  places." 

Society,  September  3,  1887,  says: 

"  The  New  Guinea  expedition  proved  abortive,  ow- 
ing to  the  blundering  shortsightedness  of  the  then 
Government,  for  which  Lord  Derby  was  chiefly  re- 
sponsible, but  what  little  foothold  we  possess  in  New 
Guinea  is  certainly  due  to  General  Maclver's  gallant 
effort/' 

Copy  of  statement  made  by  J.  Rintoul 
Mitchell,  June  2,  1887: 

"  About  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1883,  when  I  was 
editor-in-chief  of  the  Englishman  in  Calcutta,  I  was 
told  by  Captain  de  Deaux,  assistant  secretary  in  the 
Foreign  Office  of  the  Indian  Government,  that  he  had 
received  a  telegram  from  Lord  Derby  to  the  effect 
that  if  General  Maclver  ventured  to  land  upon  the 
coast  of  New  Guinea  it  would  become  the  duty  of 
Lord  Ripon,  Viceroy,  to  use  the  naval  forces  at  his 
command  for  the  purpose  of  deporting  General  Macl. 
Sir  Aucland  Calvin  can  certify  to  this,  as  it  was  dis- 
cussed in  the  Viceregal  Council." 

ii 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

Just  after  our  Civil  War  Maclver  was  in- 
terested in  another  expedition  which  also 
failed.  Its  members  called  themselves  the 
Knights  of  Arabia,  and  their  object  was  to 
colonize  an  island  much  nearer  to  our  shores 
than  New  Guinea.  Maclver,  saying  that  his 
oath  prevented,  would  never  tell  me  which 
island  this  was,  but  the  reader  can  choose  from 
among  Cuba,  Haiti,  and  the  Hawaiian  group. 
To  have  taken  Cuba,  the  "  colonizers  "  would 
have  had  to  fight  not  only  Spain,  but  the  Cu- 
bans themselves,  on  whose  side  they  were  soon 
fighting  in  the  Ten  Years'  War ;  so  Cuba  may 
be  eliminated.  And  as  the  expedition  was  to 
sail  from  the  Atlantic  side,  and  not  from  San 
Francisco,  the  island  would  appear  to  be  the 
Black  Republic.  From  the  records  of  the 
times  it  would  seem  that  the  greater  number 
of  the  Knights  of  Arabia  were  veterans  of  the 
Confederate  Army,  and  there  is  no  question 
but  that  they  intended  to  subjugate  the  blacks 
of  Haiti  and  form  a  republic  for  white  men, 
in  which  slavery  would  be  recognized.  As  one 
of  the  leaders  of  this  filibustering  expedition, 
Maclver  was  arrested  by  General  Phil  Sheri- 
dan and  for  a  short  time  cast  into  jail.  This 

12 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

chafed  the  General's  spirit,  but  he  argued 
philosophically  that  imprisonment  for  filibus- 
tering, while  irksome,  brought  with  it  no  re- 
proach. And,  indeed,  sometimes  the  only  dif- 
ference between  a  filibuster  and  a  government 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  government  fights  the 
gunboats  of  only  the  enemy  while  a  filibuster 
must  dodge  the  boats  of  the  enemy  and  those 
of  his  own  countrymen.  When  the  United 
States  went  to  war  with  Spain  there  were 
many  men  in  jail  as  filibusters,  for  doing  that 
which  at  the  time  the  country  secretly  ap- 
proved, and  later  imitated.  And  because  they 
attempted  exactly  the  same  thing  for  which 
Dr.  Jameson  was  imprisoned  in  Holloway 
Jail,  two  hundred  thousand  of  his  countrymen 
are  now  wearing  medals. 

The  by-laws  of  the  Knights  of  Arabia  leave 
but  little  doubt  as  to  its  object. 

By-law  No.  II  reads: 

"  We,  as  Knights  of  Arabia,  pledge  ourselves  to 
aid,  comfort,  and  protect  all  Knights  of  Arabia,  espe- 
cially those  who  are  wounded  in  obtaining  our  grand 
object. 

"  III — Great  care  must  be  taken  that  no  unbeliever 
or  outsider  shall  gain  any  insight  into  the  mysteries 
or  secrets  of  the  Order. 

13 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

"  IV — The  candidate  will  have  to  pay  one  hundred 
dollars  cash  to  the  Captain  of  the  Company,  and  the 
candidate  will  receive  from  the  Secretary  a  Knight  of 
Arabia  bond  for  one  hundred  dollars  in  gold,  with  ten 
per  cent  interest,  payable  ninety  days  after  the  recog- 
nition of  (The  Republic  of )  by  the  United  States, 

or  any  government. 

"  V — All  Knights  of  Arabia  will  be  entitled  to  one 
hundred  acres  of  land,  location  of  said  land  to  be 
drawn  for  by  lottery.  The  products  are  coffee,  sugar, 
tobacco,  and  cotton." 

A  local  correspondent  of  the  New  York 
Herald  writes  of  the  arrest  of  Maclver  as 
follows : 

"  When  Maclver  will  be  tried  is  at  present  un- 
known, as  his  case  has  assumed  a  complicated  aspect. 
He  claims  British  protection  as  a  subject  of  her  British 
Majesty,  and  the  English  Consul  has  forwarded  a 
statement  of  his  case  to  Sir  Frederick  Bruce  at  Wash- 
ington, accompanied  by  a  copy  of  the  by-laws.  Gen- 
eral Sheridan  also  has  forwarded  a  statement  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  accompanied  not  only  by  the  by- 
laws, but  very  important  documents,  including  letters 
from  Jefferson  Davis,  Benjamin,  the  Secretary  of 
State  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  other  personages 
prominent  in  the  Rebellion,  showing  that  Maclver  en- 
joyed the  highest  confidence  of  the  Confederacy." 

As  to  the  last  statement,  an  open  letter  I 
found  in  his  scrap-book  is  an  excellent  proof. 

It  is  as  follows : 

14 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

"To  officers  and  members  of  all  camps  of  United 
Confederate  Veterans:  It  affords  me  the  greatest 
pleasure  to  say  that  the  bearer  of  this  letter,  General 
Henry  Ronald  Maclver,  was  an  officer  of  great  gal- 
lantry in  the  Confederate  Army,  serving  on  the  staff 
at  various  times  of  General  Stonewall  Jackson,  J.  E. 
B.  Stuart,  and  E.  Kirby  Smith,  and  that  his  official 
record  is  one  of  which  any  man  may  be  proud. 

"  Respectfully,     MARCUS  J.  WRIGHT, 

Agent  for  the  Collection  of  Confederate  Records. 

"  War  Records  Office,  War  Department,  Washington,  July  8, 
1895." 

At  the  close  of  the  war  duels  between  offi- 
cers of  the  two  armies  were  not  infrequent. 
In  the  scrap-book  there  is  the  account  of  one  of 
these  affairs  sent  from  Vicksburg  to  a  North- 
ern paper  by  a  correspondent  who  was  an  eye- 
witness of  the  event.  It  tells  how  Major  Mac- 
lver, accompanied  by  Major  Gillespie,  met, 
just  outside  of  Vicksburg,  Captain  Tomlin  of 
Vermont,  of  the  United  States  Artillery  Vol- 
unteers. The  duel  was  with  swords.  Mac- 
lver ran  Tomlin  through  the  body.  The  cor- 
respondent writes : 

"  The  Confederate  officer  wiped  his  sword  on  his 
handkerchief.  In  a  few  seconds  Captain  Tomlin  ex- 
pired. One  of  Major  Maclver 's  seconds  called  to 
him :  '  He  is  dead ;  you  must  go.  These  gentlemen 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

will  look  after  the  body  of  their  friend/  A  negro 
boy  brought  up  the  horses,  but  before  mounting  Mac- 
Iver  said  to  Captain  Tomlin's  seconds :  '  My  friends 
are  in  haste  for  me  to  go.  Is  there  anything  I  can 
do?  I  hope  you  consider  that  this  matter  has  been 
settled  honorably?' 

"There  being  no  reply,  the  Confederates  rode 
away." 

In  a  newspaper  of  to-day  so  matter-of-fact 
an  acceptance  of  an  event  so  tragic  would 
make  strange  reading. 

From  the  South  Maclver  crossed  through 
Texas  to  join  the  Royalist  army  under  the 
Emperor  Maximilian.  It  was  while  making 
his  way,  with  other  Confederate  officers,  from 
Galveston  to  El  Paso,  that  Maclver  was  cap- 
tured by  the  Indians.  He  was  not  ill-treated 
by  them,  but  for  three  months  was  a  prisoner, 
until  one  night,  the  Indians  having  camped 
near  the  Rio  Grande,  he  escaped  into  Mexico. 
There  he  offered  his  sword  to  the  Royalist 
commander,  General  Mejia,  who  placed  him 
on  his  staff,  and  showed  him  some  few  skir- 
mishes. At  Monterey  Maclver  saw  big  fight- 
ing, and  for  his  share  in  it  received  the  title 
of  Count,  and  the  order  of  Guadaloupe.  In 
June,  contrary  to  all  rules  of  civilized  war, 

16 


Maclver  in  the  Uniform  of  the  Mexican  Empire. 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

Maximilian  was  executed  and  the  empire  was 
at  an  end.  Maclver  escaped  to  the  coast,  and 
from  Tampico  took  a  sailing  vessel  to  Rio 
de  Janeiro.  Two  months  later  he  was  wear- 
ing the  uniform  of  another  emperor,  Dom 
Pedro,  and,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colo- 
nel, was  in  command  of  the  Foreign  Legion 
of  the  armies  of  Brazil  and  Argentina,  which 
at  that  time  as  allies  were  fighting  against 
Paraguay. 

Maclver  soon  recruited  seven  hundred  men, 
but  only  half  of  these  ever  reached  the  front. 
In  Buenos  Ayres  cholera  broke  out  and  thirty 
thousand  people  died,  among  the  number  about 
half  the  Legion.  Maclver  was  among  those 
who  suffered,  and  before  he  recovered  was 
six  weeks  in  hospital.  During  that  period, 
under  a  junior  officer,  the  Foreign  Legion  was 
sent  to  the  front,  where  it  was  disbanded. 

On  his  return  to  Glasgow,  Maclver  fore- 
gathered with  an  old  friend,  Bennett  Bur- 
leigh,  whom  he  had  known  when  Burleigh 
was  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy  of  the  Confeder- 
ate States.  Although  to-day  known  as  a  dis- 
tinguished war  correspondent,  in  those  days 
Burleigh  was  something  of  a  soldier  of  for- 

17 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

tune  himself,  and  was  organizing  an  expedi- 
tion to  assist  the  Cretan  insurgents  against 
the  Turks.  Between  the  two  men  it  was 
arranged  that  Maclver  should  precede  the  ex- 
pedition to  Crete  and  prepare  for  its  arrival. 
The  Cretans  received  him  gladly,  and  from 
the  provisional  government  he  received  a  com- 
mission in  which  he  was  given  "  full  power  to 
make  war  on  land  and  sea  against  the  enemies 
of  Crete,  and  particularly  against  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey  and  the  Turkish  forces,  and  to 
burn,  destroy,  or  capture  any  vessel  bearing 
the  Turkish  flag." 

This  permission  to  destroy  the  Turkish 
navy  single-handed  strikes  one  as  more  than 
generous,  for  the  Cretans  had  no  navy,  and 
before  one  could  begin  the  destruction  of  a 
Turkish  gunboat  it  was  first  necessary  to  catch 
it  and  tie  it  to  a  wharf. 

At  the  close  of  the  Cretan  insurrection 
Maclver  crossed  to  Athens  and  served  against 
the  brigands  in  Kisissia  on  the  borders  of 
Albania  and  Thessaly  as  volunteer  aide  to 
Colonel  Corroneus,  who  had  been  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Cretans  against  the  Turks. 
Maclver  spent  three  months  potting  at  brig- 

18 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

ands,  and  for  his  services  in  the  mountains 
was  recommended  for  the  highest  Greek  deco- 
ration. 

From  Greece  it  was  only  a  step  to  New 
York,  and  almost  immediately  Maclver  ap- 
pears as  one  of  the  Goicouria-Christo  expedi- 
tion to  Cuba,  of  which  Goicouria  was  com- 
mander-in-chief,  and  two  famous  American 
officers,  Brigadier-General  Samuel  C.  Williams 
was  a  general  and  Colonel  Wright  Schumburg 
was  chief  of  staff. 

In  the  scrap-book  I  find  "  General  Order 
No.  II  of  the  Liberal  Army  of  the  Republic 
of  Cuba,  issued  at  Cedar  Keys,  October  3, 
1869."  In  it  Colonel  Maclver  is  spoken  of  as 
in  charge  of  officers  not  attached  to  any  organ- 
ized corps  of  the  division.  And  again : 

"  General  Order  No.  V,  Expeditionary  Di- 
vision, Republic  of  Cuba,  on  board  Lilian,"  an- 
nounces that  the  place  to  which  the  expedition 
is  bound  has  been  changed,  and  that  Gen- 
eral Wright  Schumburg,  who  now  is  in  com- 
mand, orders  "  all  officers  not  otherwise  com- 
missioned to  join  Colonel  Maclver's  '  Corps  of 
Officers/  " 

The  Lilian  ran  out  of  coal,  and  to  obtain 
19 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

firewood  put  in  at  Cedar  Keys.  For  two 
weeks  the  patriots  cut  wood  and  drilled  upon 
the  beach,  when  they  were  captured  by  a  Brit- 
ish gunboat  and  taken  to  Nassau.  There  they 
were  set  at  liberty,  but  .their  arms,  boat,  and 
stores  were  confiscated. 

In  a  sailing  vessel  Maclver  finally  reached 
Cuba,  and  under  Goicouria,  who  had  made  a 
successful  landing,  saw  some  "  help  yourself  " 
fighting.  Goicouria's  force  was  finally  scat- 
tered, and  Maclver  escaped  from  the  Spanish 
soldiery  only  by  putting  to  sea  in  an  open  boat, 
in  which  he  endeavored  to  make  Jamaica. 

On  the  third  day  out  he  was  picked  up  by 
a  steamer  and  again  landed  at  Nassau,  from 
which  place  he  returned  to  New  York. 

At  that  time  in  this  city  there  was  a  very 
interesting  man  named  Thaddeus  P.  Mott, 
who  had  been  an  officer  in  our  army  and  later 
had  entered  the  service  of  Ismail  Pasha.  By 
the  Khedive  he  had  been  appointed  a  general 
of  division  and  had  received  permission  to 
reorganize  the  Egyptian  army. 

His  object  in  coming  to  New  York  was  to 
engage  officers  for  that  service.  He  came  at 
an  opportune  moment.  At  that  time  the  city 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

was  filled  with  men  who,  in  the  Rebellion,  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  had  held  command, 
and  many  of  these,  unfitted  by  four  years 
of  soldiering  for  any  other  calling,  readily 
accepted  the  commissions  which  Mott  had  au- 
thority to  offer.  New  York  was  not  large 
enough  to  keep  Maclver  and  Mott  long  apart, 
and  they  soon  came  to  an  understanding. 
The  agreement  drawn  up  between  them  is  a 
curious  document.  It  is  written  in  a  neat  hand 
on  sheets  of  foolscap  tied  together  like  a  Com- 
mencement-day address,  with  blue  ribbon.  In 
it  Maclver  agrees  to  serve  as  colonel  of  cav- 
alry in  the  service  of  the  Khedive.  With  a 
few  legal  phrases  omitted,  the  document  reads 
as  follows: 

"Agreement  entered  into  this  24th  day  of  March, 
1870,  between  the  Government  of  his  Royal  Highness 
the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  represented  by  General  Thad- 
deus  P.  Mott  of  the  first  part,  and  H.  R.  H.  Maclver 
of  New  York  City. 

"  The  party  of  the  second  part,  being  desirous  of 
entering  into  the  service  of  party  of  the  first  part, 
in  the  military  capacity  of  a  colonel  of  cavalry,  prom- 
ises to  serve  and  obey  party  of  the  first  part  faithfully 
and  truly  in  his  military  capacity  during  the  space  of 
five  years  from  this  date ;  that  the  party  of  the  second 
part  waives  all  claims  of  protection  usually  afforded 

21 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

to  Americans  by  consular  and  diplomatic  agents  of 
the  United  States,  and  expressly  obligates  himself  to 
be  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  party  of  the  first  part, 
and  to  make,  wage,  and  vigorously  prosecute  war 
against  any  and  all  the  enemies  of  party  of  the  first 
part;  that  the  party  of  the  second  part  will  not  under 
any  event  be  governed,  controlled  by,  or  submit  to, 
any  order,  law,  mandate,  or  proclamation  issued  by 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  of  America,  for- 
bidding party  of  the  second  part  to  serve  party  of  the 
first  part  to  make  war  according  to  any  of  the  pro- 
visions herein  contained,  it  being,  however,  distinctly 
understood  that  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be 
construed  as  obligating  party  of  the  second  part  to 
bear  arms  or  wage  war  against  the  United  States  of 
America. 

"  Party  of  the  first  part  promises  to  furnish  party 
of  the  second  part  with  horses,  rations,  and  pay  him 
for  his  services  the  same  salary  now  paid  to  colonels 
of  cavalry  in  United  States  army,  and  will  furnish 
him  quarters  suitable  to  his  rank  in  army.  Also 
promises,  in  the  case  of  illness  caused  by  climate, 
that  said  party  may  resign  his  office  and  shall  receive 
his  expenses  to  America  and  two  months'  pay;  that 
he  receives  one-fifth  of  his  regular  pay  during  his 
active  service,  together  with  all  expenses  of  every 
nature  attending  such  enterprise." 

It  also  stipulates  as  to  what  sums  shall 
be  paid  his  family  or  children  in  case  of  his 
death. 

To  this  Maclver  signs  this  oath : 

22 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

"  In  the  presence  of  the  ever-living  God,  I  swear 
that  I  will  in  all  things  honestly,  faithfully,  and  truly 
keep,  observe,  and  perform  the  obligations  and  prom- 
ises above  enumerated,  and  endeavor  to  conform  to 
the  wishes  and  desires  of  the  Government  of  his  Royal 
Highness  the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  in  all  things  con- 
nected with  the  furtherance  of  his  prosperity,  and  the 
maintenance  of  his  throne." 

On  arriving  at  Cairo,  Maclver  was  ap- 
pointed inspector-general  of  cavalry,  and  fur- 
nished with  a  uniform,  of  which  this  is  a  de- 
scription :  "  It  consisted  of  a  blue  tunic  with 
gold  spangles,  embroidered  in  gold  up  the 
sleeves  and  front,  neat-fitting  red  trousers, 
and  high  patent-leather  boots,  while  the  inevi- 
table fez  completed  the  gay  costume." 

The  climate  of  Cairo  did  not  agree  with 
Maclver,  and,  in  spite  of  his  "  gay  costume/' 
after  six  months  he  left  the  Egyptian  service. 
His  honorable  discharge  was  signed  by  Stone 
Bey,  who,  in  the  favor  of  the  Khedive,  had 
supplanted  General  Mott. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  in  spite  of  his  ill 
health,  immediately  after  leaving  Cairo,  Mac- 
lver was  sufficiently  recovered  to  at  once 
plunge  into  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  At  the 
battle  of  Orleans,  while  on  the  staff  of  Gen- 

23 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

eral  Chanzy,  he  was  wounded.  In  this  war 
his  rank  was  that  of  a  colonel  of  cavalry  of 
the  auxiliary  army. 

His  next  venture  was  in  the  Carlist  upris- 
ing of  1873,  when  he  formed  a  Carlist  League, 
and  on  several  occasions  acted  as  bearer  of 
important  messages  from  the  "  King,"  as  Don 
Carlos  was  called,  to  the  sympathizers  with 
his  cause  in  France  and  England. 

Maclver  was  promised,  if  he  carried  out 
successfully  a  certain  mission  upon  which  he 
was  sent,  and  if  Don  Carlos  became  king,  that 
he  would  be  made  a  marquis.  As  Don  Carlos 
is  still  a  pretender,  Maclver  is  still  a  general. 

Although  in  disposing  of  his  sword  Mac- 
lver never  allowed  his  personal  predilections 
to  weigh  with  him,  he  always  treated  himself 
to  a  hearty  dislike  of  the  Turks,  and  we  next 
find  him  fighting  against  them  in  Herzego- 
vina with  the  Montenegrins.  And  when  the 
Servians  declared  war  against  the  same  peo- 
ple, Maclver  returned  to  London  to  organize 
a  cavalry  brigade  to  fight  with  the  Servian 
army. 

Of  this  brigade  and  of  the  rapid  rise  of 
Maclver  to  highest  rank  and  honors  in  Servia, 

24 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

the  scrap-book  is  most  eloquent.  The  cavalry 
brigade  was  to  be  called  the  Knights  of  the 
Red  Cross. 

In  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Hour,  the 
general  himself  speaks  of  it  in  the  following 
terms : 

"  It  may  be  interesting  to  many  of  your  readers  to 
learn  that  a  select  corps  of  gentlemen  is  at  present  in 
course  of  organization  under  the  above  title  with  the 
mission  of  proceeding  to  the  Levant  to  take  measures 
in  case  of  emergency  for  the  defense  of  the  Christian 
population,  and  more  especially  of  British  subjects 
who  are  to  a  great  extent  unprovided  with  adequate 
means  of  protection  from  the  religious  furies  of  the 
Mussulmans.  The  lives  of  Christian  women  and  chil- 
dren are  in  hourly  peril  from  fanatical  hordes.  The 
Knights  will  be  carefully  chosen  and  kept  within  strict 
military  control,  and  will  be  under  command  of  a 
practical  soldier  with  large  experience  of  the  Eastern 
countries.  Templars  and  all  other  Crusaders  are  in- 
vited to  give  aid  and  sympathy." 

Apparently  Maclver  was  not  successful  in 
enlisting  many  Knights,  for  a  war  corre- 
spondent at  the  capital  of  Servia,  waiting  for 
the  war  to  begin,  writes  as  follows : 

"A  Scotch  soldier  of  fortune,  Henry  Maclver,  a 
colonel  by  rank,  has  arrived  at  Belgrade  with  a  small 
contingent  of  military  adventurers.  Five  weeks  ago 

25 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

I  met  him  in  Fleet  Street,  London,  and  had  some  talk 
about  his  i  expedition/  He  had  received  a  commission 
from  the  Prince  of  Servia  to  organize  and  command 
an  independent  cavalry  brigade,  and  he  then  was  bus- 
ily enrolling  his  volunteers  into  a  body  styled  '  The 
Knights  of  the  Red  Cross/  I  am  afraid  some  of  his 
bold  Crusaders  have  earned  more  distinction  for  their 
attacks  on  Fleet  Street  bars  than  they  are  likely  to 
earn  on  Servian  battlefields,  but  then  I  must  not  an- 
ticipate history." 

Another  paper  tells  that  at  the  end  of  the 
first  week  of  his  service  as  a  Servian  officer, 
Maclver  had  enlisted  ninety  men,  but  that 
they  were  scattered  about  the  town,  many 
without  shelter  and  rations: 

"  He  assembled  his  men  on  the  Rialto,  and  in  spite 
of  official  expostulation,  the  men  were  marched  up  to 
the  Minister's  four  abreast — and  they  marched  fairly 
well,  making  a  good  show.  The  War  Minister  was 
taken  by  storm,  and  at  once  granted  everything.  It 
has  raised  the  English  colonel's  popularity  with  his 
men  to  fever  heat." 

This  from  the  Times,  London: 

"  Our  Belgrade  correspondent  telegraphs  last  night : 
"  *  There  is  here  at  present  a  gentleman  named  Mac- 
lver.    He  came  from  England  to  offer  himself  and 
his  sword  to  the  Servians.     The  Servian  Minister  of 
War  gave  him  a  colonel's  commission.    This  morning 

26 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

I  saw  him  drilling  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  re- 
markably fine-looking  fellows,  all  clad  in  a  good  serv- 
iceable cavalry  uniform,  and  he  has  horses/  " 

Later  we  find  that : 

"  Colonel  Maclver's  Legion  of  Cavalry,  organizing 
here,  now  numbers  over  two  hundred  men." 

And  again : 

"  Prince  Nica,  a  Roumanian  cousin  of  the  Princess 
Natalie  of  Servia,  has  joined  Colonel  Maclver's  cav- 
alry corps." 

Later,  in  the  Court  Journal,  October  28, 
1876,  we  read: 

"  Colonel  Maclver,  who  a  few  years  ago  was  very 
well  known  in  military  circles  in  Dublin,  now  is  mak- 
ing his  mark  with  the  Servian  Army.  In  the  war 
against  the  Turks,  he  commands  about  one  thousand 
Russo-Servian  cavalry." 

He  was  next  to  receive  the  following 
honors : 

"  Colonel  Maclver  has  been  appointed  commander 
of  the  cavalry  of  the  Servian  Armies  on  the  Morava 
and  Timok,  and  has  received  the  Cross  of  the  Takovo 
Order  from  General  Tchernaieff  for  gallant  conduct 
in  the  field,  and  the  gold  medal  for  valor." 

Later  we  learn  from  the  Daily  News: 
27 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

"  Mr.  Lewis  Farley,  Secretary  of  the  '  League  in 
Aid  of  Christians  of  Turkey/  has  received  the  follow- 
ing letter,  dated  Belgrade,  October  10,  1876: 

" '  DEAR  SIR  :  In  reference  to  the  embroidered  ban- 
ner so  kindly  worked  by  an  English  lady  and  for- 
warded by  the  League  to  Colonel  Maclver,  I  have 
great  pleasure  in  conveying  to  you  the  following  par- 
ticulars. On  Sunday  morning,  the  Flag  having  been 
previously  consecrated  by  the  Archbishop,  was  con- 
ducted by  a  guard  of  honor  to  the  palace,  and  Colonel 
Maclver,  in  the  presence  of  Prince  Milan  and  a  nu- 
merous suite,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  yourself 
and  the  fair  donor,  delivered  it  into  the  hands  of  the 
Princess  Natalie.  The  gallant  Colonel  wore  upon  this 
occasion  his  full  uniform  as  brigade  commander  and 
Chief  of  Cavalry  of  the  Servian  Army,  and  bore  upon 
his  breast  the  'Gold  Cross  of  Takovo '  which  he  re- 
ceived after  the  battles  of  the  28th  and  3<Dth  of  Sep- 
tember, in  recognition  of  the  heroism  and  bravery 
he  displayed  upon  these  eventful  days.  The  beauty 
of  the  decoration  was  enhanced  by  the  circumstances 
of  its  bestowal,  for  on  the  evening  of  the  battle  of  the 
3Oth,  General  Tchernaieff  approached  Colonel  Mac- 
lver, and,  unclasping  the  Cross  from  his  own  breast, 
placed  it  upon  that  of  the  Colonel. 

"'(Signed)  HUGH  JACKSON. 

" ' Member  of  Council  of  the  League' " 

In  Servia  and  in  the  Servian  Army  Maclver 
reached  what  as  yet  is  the  highest  point  of 
his  career,  and  of  his  life  the  happiest  period. 

He  was  general  de  brigade,  which  is  not 
28 


Maclver  as  General  of  Brigade,  in  Servian 
Uniform. 


MAJOR-GENERAL    MACIVER 

what  we  know  as  a  brigade  general,  but  is 
one  who  commands  a  division,  a  major-gen- 
eral. He  was  a  great  favorite  both  at  the 
Palace  and  with  the  people,  the  pay  was  good, 
fighting  plentiful,  and  Belgrade  gay  and  amus- 
ing. Of  all  the  places  he  has  visited  and  the 
countries  he  has  served,  it  is  of  this  Balkan 
kingdom  that  the  general  seems  to  speak  most 
fondly  and  with  the  greatest  feeling.  Of 
Queen  Natalie  he  was  and  is  a  most  loyal  and 
chivalric  admirer,  and  was  ever  ready,  when 
he  found  any  one  who  did  not  as  greatly  re- 
spect the  lady,  to  offer  him  the  choice  of 
swords  or  pistols.  Even  for  Milan  he  finds  an 
extenuating  word. 

After  Servia  the  general  raised  more  For- 
eign Legions,  planned  further  expeditions;  in 
Central  America  reorganized  the  small  armies 
of  the  small  republics,  served  as  United  States 
Consul,  and  offered  his  sword  to  President 
McKinley  for  use  against  Spain.  But  with 
Servia  the  most  active  portion  of  the  life  of 
the  general  ceased,  and  the  rest  has  been  a 
repetition  of  what  went  before.  At  present 
his  time  is  divided  between  New  York  and  Vir- 
ginia, where  he  has  been  offered  an  executive 

29 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

position  in  the  approaching  Jamestown  Expo- 
sition. Both  North  and  South  he  has  many 
friends,  many  admirers.  But  his  life  is,  and, 
from  the  nature  of  his  profession,  must  always 
be,  a  lonely  one. 

While  other  men  remain  planted  in  one 
spot,  gathering  about  them  a  home,  sons  and 
daughters,  an  income  for  old  age,  Maclver  is 
a  rolling  stone,  a  piece  of  floating  seaweed; 
as  the  present  King  of  England  called  him 
fondly,  "  that  vagabond  soldier/' 

To  a  man  who  has  lived  in  the  saddle  and 
upon  transports,  "  neighbor "  conveys  noth- 
ing, and  even  "  comrade "  too  often  means 
one  who  is  no  longer  living. 

With  the  exception  of  the  United  States, 
of  which  he  now  is  a  naturalized  citizen,  the 
general  has  fought  for  nearly  every  country 
in  the  world,  but  if  any  of  those  for  which  he 
lost  his  health  and  blood,  and  for  which  he 
risked  his  life,  remembers  him,  it  makes  no  sign. 
And  the  general  is  too  proud  to  ask  to  be  re- 
membered. To-day  there  is  no  more  interest- 
ing figure  than  this  man  who  in  years  is  still 
young  enough  to  lead  an  army  corps,  and  who, 
for  forty  years,  has  been  selling  his  sword  and 

3° 


Major-General  Henry  Ronald  Douglas  Maclver  as  He 
Is  To-day. 


MAJOR-GENERAL   MACIVER 

risking  his  life  for  presidents,  pretenders, 
charlatans,  and  emperors. 

He  finds  some  mighty  changes :  Cuba,  which 
he  fought  to  free,  is  free;  men  of  the  South, 
with  whom  for  four  years  he  fought  shoulder 
to  shoulder,  are  now  wearing  the  blue;  the 
Empire  of  Mexico,  for  which  he  fought,  is  a 
republic;  the  Empire  of  France,  for  which  he 
fought,  is  a  republic;  the  Empire  of  Brazil, 
for  which  he  fought,  is  a  republic ;  the  dynasty 
in  Servia  to  which  he  owes  his  greatest  honors 
has  been  wiped  out  by  murder.  From  none 
of  these  eighteen  countries  he  has  served  has 
he  a  pension,  berth,  or  billet,  and  at  sixty  he 
finds  himself  at  home  in  every  land,  but  with 
a  home  in  none. 

Still  he  has  his  sword,  his  blanket,  and  in 
the  event  of  war,  to  obtain  a  commission  he 
has  only  to  open  his  tin  boxes  and  show  the 
commissions  already  won.  Indeed,  any  day, 
in  a  new  uniform,  and  under  the  Nineteenth 
Flag,  the  general  may  again  be  winning  fresh 
victories  and  honors. 

And  so,  this  brief  sketch  of  him  is  left  unfin- 
ished. We  will  mark  it — To  be  continued. 


II 

BARON   JAMES    HARDEN-HICKEY 

THIS  is  an  attempt  to  tell  the  story  of 
Baron  Harden-Hickey,  the  Man  Who 
Made  Himself  King,  the  man  who  was  born 
after  his  time. 

If  the  reader,  knowing  something  of  the 
strange  career  of  Harden-Hickey,  wonders 
why  one  writes  of  him  appreciatively  rather 
than  in  amusement,  he  is  asked  not  to  judge 
Harden-Hickey  as  one  judges  a  contempo- 
rary. 

Harden-Hickey,  in  our  day,  was  as  incon- 
gruous a  figure  as  was  the  American  at  the 
Court  of  King  Arthur;  he  was  as  unhappily 
out  of  the  picture  as  would  be  Cyrano  de  Ber- 
gerac  on  the  floor  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
Judged,  as  at  the  time  he  was  judged,  by  writ- 
ers of  comic  paragraphs,  by  presidents  of 
railroads,  by  amateur  "  statesmen  "  at  Wash- 
ington, Harden-Hickey  was  a  joke.  To  the 

32 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

vacant  mind  of  the  village  idiot,  Rip  Van 
Winkle  returning  to  Falling  Water  also  was 
a  joke.  The  people  of  our  day  had  not  the 
time  to  understand  Harden-Hickey ;  they 
thought  him  a  charlatan,  half  a  dangerous 
adventurer  and  half  a  fool;  and  Harden- 
Hickey  certainly  did  not  understand  them. 
His  last  words,  addressed  to  his  wife,  showed 
this.  They  were:  "  I  would  rather  die  a  gen- 
tleman than  live  a  blackguard  like  your 
father/' 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  father-in-law,  al- 
though living  under  the  disadvantage  of  being 
a  Standard  Oil  magnate,  neither  was,  nor  is, 
a  blackguard,  and  his  son-in-law  had  been 
treated  by  him  generously  and  with  patience. 
But  for  the  duellist  and  soldier  of  fortune  it 
was  impossible  to  sympathize  with  a  man  who 
took  no  greater  risk  in  life  than  to  ride  on 
one  of  his  own  railroads,  and  of  the  views  the 
two  men  held  of  each  other,  that  of  John  H. 
Flagler  was  probably  the  fairer  and  the  more 
kindly. 

Harden-Hickey  was  one  of  the  most  pictur- 
esque, gallant,  and  pathetic  adventurers  of  our 
day;  but  Flagler  also  deserves  our  sympathy. 

33 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

For  an  unimaginative  and  hard-working 
Standard  Oil  King  to  have  a  D'Artagnan 
thrust  upon  him  as  a  son-in-law  must  be 
trying. 

James  A.  Harden-Hickey,  James  the  First 
of  Trinidad,  Baron  of  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire, was  born  on  December  8,  1854.  As  to 
the  date  all  historians  agree;  as  to  where  the 
important  event  took  place  they  differ.  That 
he  was  born  in  France  his  friends  are  positive, 
but  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  El  Paso  the  San 
Francisco  papers  claimed  him  as  a  native  of 
California.  All  agree  that  his  ancestors  were 
Catholics  and  Royalists  who  left  Ireland  with 
the  Stuarts  when  they  sought  refuge  in 
France.  The  version  which  seems  to  be  the 
most  probable  is  that  he  was  born  in  San 
Francisco,  where  as  one  of  the  early  settlers, 
his  father,  E.  C.  Hickey,  was  well  known,  and 
that  early  in  his  life,  in  order  to  educate  him, 
the  mother  took  him  to  Europe. 

There  he  was  educated  at  the  Jesuit  Col- 
lege at  Namur,  then  at  Leipsic,  and  later 
entered  the  Military  College  of  St.  Cyr. 

James  the  First  was  one  of  those  boys  who 
never  had  the  misfortune  to  grow  up.  To  the 

34 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

moment  of  his  death,  in  all  he  planned  you 
can  trace  the  effects  of  his  early  teachings  and 
environment;  the  influences  of  the  great 
Church  that  nursed  him,  and  of  the  city  of 
Paris,  in  which  he  lived.  Under  the  Second 
Empire,  Paris  was  at  her  maddest,  baddest, 
and  best.  To-day  under  the  Republic,  with- 
out a  court,  with  a  society  kept  in  funds  by 
the  self-expatriated  wives  and  daughters  of 
our  business  men,  she  lacks  the  reasons  for 
which  Baron  Haussmann  bedecked  her  and 
made  her  beautiful.  The  good  Loubet,  the 
worthy  Fallieres,  except  that  they  furnish  the 
cartoonist  with  subjects  for  ridicule,  do  not 
add  to  the  gayety  of  Paris.  But  when  Har- 
den-Hickey  was  a  boy,  Paris  was  never  so 
carelessly  gay,  so  brilliant,  never  so  over- 
charged with  life,  color,  and  adventure. 

In  those  days  "  the  Emperor  sat  in  his  box 
that  night,"  and  in  the  box  opposite  sat  Cora 
Pearl;  veterans  of  the  campaign  of  Italy,  of 
Mexico,  from  the  desert  fights  of  Algiers, 
sipped  sugar  and  water  in  front  of  Tortoni's, 
the  Cafe  Durand,  the  Cafe  Riche;  the  side- 
walks rang  with  their  sabres,  the  boulevards 
were  filled  with  the  colors  of  the  gorgeous 

35 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

uniforms;  all  night  of  each  night  the  Place 
Vendome  shone  with  the  carriage  lamps  of 
the  visiting  Pashas  from  Egypt,  of  nabobs 
from  India,  of  rastaquoueres  from  the  sister 
Empire  of  Brazil ;  the  state  carriages,  with  the 
outriders  and  postilions  in  the  green  and  gold 
of  the  Empress,  swept  through  the  Champs 
Elysees,  and  at  the  Bal  Bulier,  and  at  Mabile 
the  students  and  "  grisettes  "  introduced  the 
cancan.  The  men  of  those  days  were  Hugo, 
Thiers,  Dumas,  Daudet,  Alfred  de  Musset; 
the  magnificent  blackguard,  the  Due  de 
Morny,  and  the  great,  simple  Canrobert,  the 
captain  of  barricades,  who  became  a  Marshal 
of  France. 

Over  all  was  the  mushroom  Emperor,  his 
ante-rooms  crowded  with  the  titled  charlatans 
of  Europe,  his  court  radiant  with  countesses 
created  overnight.  And  it  was  the  Emperor, 
with  his  love  of  theatrical  display,  of  gorgeous 
ceremonies;  with  his  restless  reaching  after 
military  glory,  the  weary,  cynical  adventurer, 
that  the  boy  at  St.  Cyr  took  as  his  model. 

Royalist  as  was  Harden-Hickey  by  birth 
and  tradition,  and  Royalist  as  he  always  re- 
mained, it  was  the  court  at  the  Tuileries  that 

36 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

filled  his  imagination.  The  Bourbons,  whom 
he  served,  hoped  some  day  for  a  court;  at  the 
Tuileries  there  was  a  court,  glittering  before 
his  physical  eyes.  The  Bourbons  were  pleas- 
ant old  gentlemen,  who  later  willingly  sup- 
ported him,  and  for  whom  always  he  was 
equally  willing  to  fight,  either  with  his  sword 
or  his  pen.  But  to  the  last,  in  his  mind,  he 
carried  pictures  of  the  Second  Empire,  as  he, 
as  a  boy,  had  known  it. 

Can  you  not  imagine  the  future  James  the 
First,  barelegged,  in  a  black-belted  smock, 
halting  with  his  nurse,  or  his  priest,  to  gaze 
up  in  awe-struck  delight  at  the  great,  red- 
breeched  Zouaves  lounging  on  guard  at  the 
Tuileries  ? 

"When  I  grow  up,"  said  little  James  to 
himself,  not  knowing  that  he  never  would 
grow  up,  "  I  shall  have  Zouaves  for  my  palace 
guard." 

And  twenty  years  later,  when  he  laid  down 
the  laws  for  his  little  kingdom,  you  find  that 
the  officers  of  his  court  must  wear  the  mus- 
tache, "a  la  Louis  Napoleon,"  and  that  the 
Zouave  uniform  will  be  worn  by  the  Palace 
Guards. 

37 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

In  1883,  while  he  still  was  at  the  War  Col- 
lege, his  father  died,  and  when  he  graduated, 
which  he  did  with  honors,  he  found  himself 
his  own  master.  His  assets  were  a  small  in- 
come, a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  French  lan- 
guage, and  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the 
most  expert  swordsmen  in  Paris.  He  chose 
not  to  enter  the  army,  and  instead  became  a 
journalist,  novelist,  duellist,  an  habitue  of  the 
Latin  Quarter  and  the  Boulevards. 

As  a  novelist  the  titles  of  his  books  sug- 
gest their  quality.  Among  them  are:  "Un 
Amour  Vendeen,"  "  Lettres  d'un  Yankee," 
" Un  Amour  dans  le  Monde,"  "  Memoires 
d'un  Gommeux,"  "  Merveilleuses  Aventures 
de  Nabuchodonosor,  Nosebreaker." 

Of  the  Catholic  Church  he  wrote  seriously, 
apparently  with  deep  conviction,  with  high 
enthusiasm.  In  her  service  as  a  defender  of 
the  faith  he  issued  essays,  pamphlets,  "  broad- 
sides." The  opponents  of  the  Church  in  Paris 
he  attacked  relentlessly. 

As  a  reward  for  his  championship  he  re- 
ceived the  title  of  Baron. 

In  1878,  while  only  twenty-four,  he  married 
the  Countess  de  Saint-Pery,  by  whom  he  had 

38 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

two  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  and  three  years 
later  he  started  Triboulet.  It  was  this  paper 
that  made  him  famous  to  "  all  Paris." 

It  was  a  Royalist  sheet,  subsidized  by  the 
Count  de  Chambord  and  published  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  Bourbons.  Until  1888  Harden- 
Hickey  was  its  editor,  and  even  by  his  enemies 
it  must  be  said  that  he  served  his  employers 
with  zeal.  During  the  seven  years  in  which 
the  paper  amused  Paris  and  annoyed  the  Re- 
publican Government,  as  its  editor  Harden- 
Hickey  was  involved  in  forty-two  lawsuits,  for 
different  editorial  indiscretions,  fined  three 
hundred  thousand  francs,  and  was  a  principal 
in  countless  duels. 

To  his  brother  editors  his  standing  interro- 
gation was :  "  Would  you  prefer  to  meet  me 
upon  the  editorial  page,  or  in  the  Bois  de  Bou- 
logne?" Among  those  who  met  him  in  the 
Bois  were  Aurelien  Scholl,  H.  Lavenbryon, 
M.  Taine,  M.  de  Cyon,  Philippe  Du  Bois,  Jean 
Moreas. 

In  1888,  either  because,  his  patron  the  Count 
de  Chambord  having  died,  there  was  no  more 
money  to  pay  the  fines,  or  because  the  patience 
of  the  Government  was  exhausted,  Triboulet 

39 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

ceased  to  exist,  and  Harden-Hickey,  claiming 
the  paper  had  been  suppressed  and  he  himself 
exiled,  crossed  to  London. 

From  there  he  embarked  upon  a  voyage 
around  the  world,  which  lasted  two  years,  and 
in  the  course  of  which  he  discovered  the  island 
kingdom  of  which  he  was  to  be  the  first  and 
last  king.  Previous  to  his  departure,  having 
been  divorced  from  the  Countess  de  Saint- 
Pery,  he  placed  his  boy  and  girl  in  the  care 
of  a  fellow  journalist  and  very  dear  friend, 
the  Count  de  la  Boissiere,  of  whom  later  we 
shall  hear  more. 

Harden-Hickey  started  around  the  world  on 
the  Astoria,  a  British  merchant  vessel  bound 
for  India  by  way  of  Cape  Horn,  Captain  Jack- 
son commanding. 

When  off  the  coast  of  Brazil  the  ship 
touched  at  the  uninhabited  island  of  Trinidad. 
Historians  of  James  the  First  say  that  it  was 
through  stress  of  weather  that  the  Astoria  was 
driven  to  seek  refuge  there,  but  as,  for  six 
months  of  the  year,  to  make  a  landing  on  the 
island  is  almost  impossible,  and  as  at  any  time, 
under  stress  of  weather,  Trinidad  would  be  a 

place  to  avoid,  it  is  more  likely  Jackson  put 

4o 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

in  to  replenish  his  water-casks,  or  to  obtain  a 
supply  of  turtle  meat. 

Or  it  may  have  been  that,  having  told  Har- 
den-Hickey  of  the  derelict  island,  the  latter 
persuaded  the  captain  to  allow  him  to  land 
and  explore  it.  Of  this,  at  least,  we  are  cer- 
tain, a  boat  was  sent  ashore,  Harden-Hickey 
went  ashore  in  it,  and  before  he  left  the  island, 
as  a  piece  of  no  man's  land,  belonging  to  no 
country,  he  claimed  it  in  his  own  name,  and 
upon  the  beach  raised  a  flag  of  his  own 
design. 

The  Island  of  Trinidad  claimed  by  Harden- 
Hickey  must  not  be  confused  with  the  larger 
Trinidad  belonging  to  Great  Britain  and  lying 
off  Venezuela. 

The  English  Trinidad  is  a  smiling,  peaceful 
spot  of  great  tropical  beauty;  it  is  one  of  the 
fairest  places  in  the  West  Indies.  At  every 
hour  of  the  year  the  harbor  of  Port  of  Spain 
holds  open  its  arms  to  vessels  of  every  draft. 
A  Governor  in  a  pith  helmet,  a  cricket  club,  a 
bishop  in  gaiters,  and  a  botanical  garden,  go 
to  make  it  a  prosperous  and  contented  colony. 
But  the  little  derelict  Trinidad,  in  latitude 
20°  30'  south,  and  longitude  29°  22'  west, 

41 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

seven  hundred  miles  from  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
is  but  a  spot  upon  the  ocean.  On  most  maps 
it  is  not  even  a  spot.  Except  by  birds,  turtles, 
and  hideous  land-crabs,  it  is  uninhabited;  and 
against  the  advances  of  man  its  shores  are 
fortified  with  cruel  ridges  of  coral,  jagged 
limestone  rocks,  and  a  tremendous  towering 
surf  which,  even  in  a  dead  calm,  beats  many 
feet  high  against  the  coast. 

In  1698  Dr.  Halley  visited  the  island,  and 
says  he  found  nothing  living  but  doves  and 
land-crabs.  "  Saw  many  green  turtles  in  sea, 
but  by  reason  of  the  great  surf,  could  catch 


none." 


After  Halley's  visit,  in  1700  the  island  was 
settled  by  a  few  Portuguese  from  Brazil.  The 
ruins  of  their  stone  huts  are  still  in  evidence. 
But  Amaro  Delano,  who  called  in  1803,  makes 
no  mention  of  the  Portuguese;  and  when,  in 
1822,  Commodore  Owen  visited  Trinidad,  he 
found  nothing  living  there  save  cormorants, 
petrels,  gannets,  man-of-war  birds,  and  "  tur- 
tles weighing  from  five  hundred  to  seven 
hundred  pounds." 

In  1889  E.  F.  Knight,  who  in  the  Japanese- 
Russian  War  represented  the  London  Morn- 

42 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

ing  Post,  visited  Trinidad  in  his  yacht  in 
search  of  buried  treasure. 

Alexander  Dalrymple,  in  his  book  entitled 
"  Collection  of  Voages,  chiefly  in  the  Southern 
Atlantick  Ocean,  1775,"  tells  how,  in  1700, 
he  "  took  possession  of  the  island  in  his  Maj- 
esty's name  as  knowing  it  to  be  granted  by 
the  King's  letter  patent,  leaving  a  Union  Jack 
flying." 

So  it  appears  that  before  Harden-Hickey 
seized  the  island  it  already  had  been  claimed 
by  Great  Britain,  and  later,  on  account  of  the 
Portuguese  settlement,  by  Brazil.  The  answer 
Harden-Hickey  made  to  these  claims  was  that 
the  English  never  settled  in  Trinidad,  and  that 
the  Portuguese  abandoned  it,  and,  therefore, 
their  claims  lapsed.  In  his  "  prospectus  "  of 
his  island,  Harden-Hickey  himself  describes 
it  thus : 

"  Trinidad  is  about  five  miles  long  and  three 
miles  wide.  In  spite  of  its  rugged  and  unin- 
viting appearance,  the  inland  plateaus  are  rich 
with  luxuriant  vegetation. 

"  Prominent  among  this  is  a  peculiar  species 
of  bean,  which  is  not  only  edible  but  extremely 
palatable.  The  surrounding  seas  swarm  with 

43 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

fish,  which  as  yet  are  wholly  unsuspicious  of 
the  hook.  Dolphins,  rock  cod,  pigfish,  and 
blackfish  may  be  caught  as  quickly  as  they  can 
be  hauled  out.  I  look  to  the  sea  birds  and  the 
turtles  to  afford  our  principal  source  of  rev- 
enue. Trinidad  is  the  breeding  place  of 
almost  the  entire  feathery  population  of  the 
South  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  exportation  of 
guano  alone  should  make  my  little  country 
prosperous.  Turtles  visit  the  island  to  deposit 
eggs,  and  at  certain  seasons  the  beach  is  lit- 
erally alive  with  them.  The  only  drawback 
to  my  projected  kingdom  is  the  fact  that  it 
has  no  good  harbor  and  can  be  approached 
only  when  the  sea  is  calm." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  sometimes  months  pass 
before  it  is  possible  to  effect  a  landing. 

Another  asset  of  the  island  held  out  by  the 
prospectus  was  its  great  store  of  buried  treas- 
ure. Before  Harden-Hickey  seized  the  island, 
this  treasure  had  made  it  known.  This  is  the 
legend.  In  1821  a  great  store  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver plate  plundered  from  Peruvian  churches 
had  been  concealed  on  the  island  by  pirates 
near  Sugar  Loaf  Hill,  on  the  shore  of  what 
is  known  as  the  Southwest  Bay.  Much  of  this 

44 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

plate  came  from  the  cathedral  at  Lima,  having 
been  carried  from  there  during  the  War  of  In- 
dependence when  the  Spanish  residents  fled  the 
country.  In  their  eagerness  to  escape  they 
put  to  sea  in  any  ship  that  offered,  and  these 
unarmed  and  unseaworthy  vessels  fell  an  easy 
prey  to  pirates.  One  of  these  pirates  on  his 
deathbed,  in  gratitude  to  his  former  captain, 
told  him  the  secret  of  the  treasure.  In  1892 
this  captain  was  still  living,  in  Newcastle, 
England,  and  although  his  story  bears  a  fam- 
ily resemblance  to  every  other  story  of  buried 
treasure,  there  were  added  to  the  tale  of  the 
pirate  some  corroborative  details.  These,  in 
twelve  years,  induced  five  different  expeditions 
to  visit  the  island.  The  two  most  important 
were  that  of  E.  F.  Knight  and  one  from  the 
Tyne  in  the  bark  Aurea. 

In  his  "  Cruise  of  the  Alert e"  Knight  gives 
a  full  description  of  the  island,  and  of  his 
attempt  to  find  the  treasure.  In  this,  a  land- 
slide having  covered  the  place  where  it  was 
buried,  he  was  unsuccessful. 

But  Knight's  book  is  the  only  source  of 
accurate  information  concerning  Trinidad, 
and  in  writing  his  prospectus  it  is  evident  that 

45 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

Harden-Hickey  was  forced  to  borrow  from  it 
freely.  Knight  himself  says  that  the  most 
minute  and  accurate  description  of  Trinidad 
is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Frank  Mildmay "  of 
Captain  Marryat.  He  found  it  so  easy  to 
identify  each  spot  mentioned  in  the  novel  that 
he  believes  the  author  of  "  Midshipman  Easy  " 
himself  touched  there. 

After  seizing  Trinidad,  Harden-Hickey 
rounded  the  Cape  and  made  north  to  Japan, 
China,  and  India.  In  India  he  became  inter- 
ested in  Buddhism,  and  remained  for  over  a 
year  questioning  the  priests  of  that  religion 
and  studying  its  tenets  and  history. 

On  his  return  to  Paris,  in  1890,  he  met 
Miss  Annie  Harper  Flagler,  daughter  of  John 
H.  Flagler.  A  year  later,  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day,  1891,  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church,  Miss  Flagler  became  the  Baroness 
Harden-Hickey.  The  Rev.  John  Hall  mar- 
ried them. 

For  the  next  two  years  Harden-Hickey 
lived  in  New  York,  but  so  quietly  that,  except 
that  he  lived  quietly,  it  is  difficult  to  find  out 
anything  concerning  him.  The  man  who  a 

few  years  before  had  delighted  Paris  with  his 

46 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

daily  feuilletons,  with  his  duels,  with  his  forty- 
two  lawsuits,  who  had  been  the  master  of 
revels  in  the  Latin  Quarter,  in  New  York  lived 
almost  as  a  recluse,  writing  a  book  on  Buddh- 
ism. While  he  was  in  New  York  I  was  a 
reporter  on  the  Evening  Sun,  but  I  cannot 
recall  ever  having  read  his  name  in  the  news- 
papers of  that  day,  and  I  heard  of  him  only 
twice;  once  as  giving  an  exhibition  of  his 
water-colors  at  the  American  Art  Galleries, 
and  again  as  the  author  of  a  book  I  found 
in  a  store  in  Twenty-second  Street,  just  east 
of  Broadway,  then  the  home  of  the  Truth 
Seeker  Publishing  Company. 

It  was  a  grewsome  compilation  and  had  just 
appeared  in  print.  It  was  called  "  Euthanasia, 
or  the  Ethics  of  Suicide."  This  book  was  an 
apology  or  plea  for  self-destruction.  In  it  the 
Baron  laid  down  those  occasions  when  he  con- 
sidered suicide  pardonable,  and  when  obliga- 
tory. To  support  his  arguments  and  to  show 
that  suicide  was  a  noble  act,  he  quoted  Plato, 
Cicero,  Shakespeare,  and  even  misquoted  the 
Bible.  He  gave  a  list  of  poisons,  and  the 
amount  of  each  necessary  to  kill  a  human 
being.  To  show  how  one  can  depart  from 

47 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

life  with  the  least  pain,  he  illustrated  the  text 
with  most  unpleasant  pictures,  drawn  by  him- 
self. 

The  book  showed  how  far  Harden-Hickey 
had  strayed  from  the  teachings  of  the  Jesuit 
College  at  Namur,  and  of  the  Church  that  had 
made  him  "  noble." 

All  of  these  two  years  had  not  been  spent 
only  in  New  York.  Harden-Hickey  made 
excursions  to  California,  to  Mexico,  and  to 
Texas,  and  in  each  of  these  places  bought 
cattle  ranches  and  mines.  The  money  to  pay 
for  these  investments  came  from  his  father-in- 
law.  But  not  directly.  Whenever  he  wanted 
money  he  asked  his  wife,  or  De  la  Boissiere, 
who  was  a  friend  also  of  Flagler,  to  obtain  it 
for  him. 

His  attitude  toward  his  father-in-law  is  dif- 
ficult to  explain.  It  is  not  apparent  that  Flag- 
ler ever  did  anything  which  could  justly  offend 
him;  indeed,  he  always  seems  to  have  spoken 
of  his  son-in-law  with  tolerance,  and  often 
with  awe,  as  one  would  speak  of  a  clever, 
wayward  child.  But  Harden-Hickey  chose  to 
regard  Flagler  as  his  enemy,  as  a  sordid  man 

of  business  who  could  not  understand  the  feel- 

48 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

ings  and  aspirations  of  a  genius  and  a  gen- 
tleman. 

Before  Harden-Hickey  married,  the  misun- 
derstanding between  his  wife's  father  and 
himself  began.  Because  he  thought  Harden- 
Hickey  was  marrying  his  daughter  for  her 
money,  Flagler  opposed  the  union.  Conse- 
quently, Harden-Hickey  married  Miss  Flagler 
without  "  settlements,"  and  for  the  first  few 
years  supported  her  without  aid  from  her 
father.  But  his  wife  had  been  accustomed  to 
a  manner  of  living  beyond  the  means  of  the 
soldier  of  fortune,  and  soon  his  income,  and 
then  even  his  capital,  was  exhausted.  From 
her  mother  the  Baroness  inherited  a  fortune. 
This  was  in  the  hands  of  her  father  as  execu- 
tor. When  his  own  money  was  gone,  Harden- 
Hickey  endeavored  to  have  the  money  belong- 
ing to  his  wife  placed  to  her  credit,  or  to  his. 
To  this,  it  is  said,  Flagler,  on  the  ground  that 
Harden-Hickey  was  not  a  man  of  business, 
while  he  was,  objected,  and  urged  that  he 
was,  and  that  if  it  remained  in  his  hands  the 
money  would  be  better  invested  and  better 
expended.  It  was  the  refusal  of  Flagler  to 
intrust  Harden-Hickey  with  the  care  of  his 

49 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

wife's  money  that  caused  the  breach  between 
them. 

As  I  have  said,  you  cannot  judge  Harden- 
Hickey  as  you  would  a  contemporary.  With 
the  people  among  whom  he  was  thrown,  his 
ideas  were  entirely  out  of  joint.  He  should 
have  lived  in  the  days  of  "  The  Three  Mus- 
keteers." People  who  looked  upon  him  as 
working  for  his  own  hand  entirely  misunder- 
stood him.  He  was  absolutely  honest,  and  as 
absolutely  without  a  sense  of  humor.  To  him, 
to  pay  taxes,  to  pay  grocers'  bills,  to  depend 
for  protection  upon  a  policeman,  was  intoler- 
able. He  lived  in  a  world  of  his  own  imagin- 
ing. And  one  day,  in  order  to  make  his 
imaginings  real,  and  to  escape  from  his  father- 
in-law's  unromantic  world  of  Standard  Oil  and 
Florida  hotels,  in  a  proclamation  to  the  Pow- 
ers he  announced  himself  as  King  James  the 
First  of  the  Principality  of  Trinidad. 

The  proclamation  failed  to  create  a  world 
crisis.  Several  of  the  Powers  recognized  his 
principality  and  his  title ;  but,  as  a  rule,  people 
laughed,  wondered,  and  forgot.  That  the 
daughter  of  John  Flagler  was  to  rule  the  new 
principality  gave  it  a  "  news  interest,"  and  for 


BARON   HARDEN-HICKEY 

a  few  Sundays  in  the  supplements  she  was 
hailed  as  the  "  American  Queen." 

When  upon  the  subject  of  the  new  kingdom 
Flagler  himself  was  interviewed,  he  showed 
an  open  mind. 

"  My  son-in-law  is  a  very  determined  man," 
he  said;  "he  will  carry  out  any  scheme  in 
which  he  is  interested.  Had  he  consulted  me 
about  this,  I  would  have  been  glad  to  have 
aided  him  with  money  or  advice.  My  son-in- 
law  is  an  extremely  well-read,  refined,  well- 
bred  man.  He  does  not  court  publicity. 
While  he  was  staying  in  my  house  he  spent 
nearly  all  the  time  in  the  library  translating 
an  Indian  book  on  Buddhism.  My  daughter 
has  no  ambition  to  be  a  queen  or  anything  else 
than  what  she  is — an  American  girl.  But  my 
son-in-law  means  to  carry  on  this  Trinidad 
scheme,  and — he  will." 

From  his  father-in-law,  at  least,  Harden- 
Hickey  could  not  complain  that  he  had  met 
with  lack  of  sympathy. 

The  rest  of  America  was  amused ;  and  after 
less  than  nine  days,  indifferent.  But  Harden- 
Hickey,  though  unobtrusively,  none  the  less 
earnestly  continued  to  play  the  part  of  king. 

51 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

His  friend  De  la  Boissiere  he  appointed  his 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  established 
in  a  Chancellery  at  217  West  Thirty-sixth 
Street,  New  York,  and  from  there  was  issued 
a  sort  of  circular,  or  prospectus,  written  by  the 
King  and  signed  by  "  Le  Grand  Chancelier, 
Secretaire  d'Etat  pour  les  Affaires  Etrangeres, 
M.  le  Comte  de  la  Boissiere." 

The  document,  written  in  French,  an- 
nounced that  the  new  state  would  be  gov- 
erned by  a  military  dictatorship,  that  the  royal 
standard  was  a  yellow  triangle  on  a  red 
ground,  and  that  the  arms  of  the  principality 
were  "  d'Or  chape  de  Gueules."  It  pointed 
out  naively  that  those  who  first  settled  on  the 
island  would  be  naturally  the  oldest  inhab- 
itants, and  hence  would  form  the  aristocracy. 
But  only  those  who  at  home  enjoyed  social 
position  and  some  private  fortune  would  be 
admitted  into  this  select  circle. 

For  itself  the  state  reserved  a  monopoly  of 
the  guano,  of  the  turtles,  and  of  the  buried 
treasure.  And  both  to  discover  the  treasure 
and  to  encourage  settlers  to  dig  and  so  culti- 
vate the  soil,  a  percentage  of  the  treasure  was 
promised  to  the  one  who  found  it. 

52 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

Any  one  purchasing  ten  $200  bonds  was 
entitled  to  a  free  passage  to  the  island,  and 
after  a  year,  should  he  so  desire  it,  a  return 
trip.  The  hard  work  was  to  be  performed  by 
Chinese  coolies,  the  aristocracy  existing  beau- 
tifully, and,  according  to  the  prospectus,  to 
enjoy  "vie  d'un  genre  tout  nouveau,  et  la 
recherche  de  sensations  nouvelles" 

To  reward  his  subjects  for  prominence  in 
literature,  the  arts,  and  the  sciences,  his  Ma- 
jesty established  an  order  of  chivalry.  The 
official  document  creating  this  order  reads : 

"  We,  James,  Prince  of  Trinidad,  have  resolved  to 
commemorate  our  accession  to  the  throne  of  Trinidad 
by  the  institution  of  an  Order  of  Chivalry,  destined  to 
reward  literature,  industry,  science,  and  the  human 
virtues,  and  by  these  presents  have  established  and 
do  institute,  with  cross  and  crown,  the  Order  of  the 
Insignia  of  the  Cross  of  Trinidad,  of  which  we  and 
our  heirs  and  successors  shall  be  the  sovereigns. 

"  Given  in  our  Chancellery  the  Eighth  of  the  month 
of  December,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety- 
three,  and  of  our  reign,  the  First  Year. 

"JAMES." 

There  were  four  grades:  Chevalier,  Com- 
mander, Grand  Officer,  and  Grand  Cross ;  and 

S3 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

the  name  of  each  member  of  the  order  was 
inscribed  in  "  The  Book  of  Gold."  A  pension 
of  one  thousand  francs  was  given  to  a  Cheva- 
lier, of  two  thousand  francs  to  a  Commander, 
and  of  three  thousand  francs  to  a  Grand  Offi- 
cer. Those  of  the  grade  of  Grand  Cross  were 
content  with  a  plaque  of  eight  diamond-studded 
rays,  with,  in  the  centre,  set  in  red  enamel, 
the  arms  of  Trinidad.  The  ribbon  was  red  and 
yellow. 

A  rule  of  the  order  read :  "  The  costume 
shall  be  identical  with  that  of  the  Chamber- 
lains of  the  Court  of  Trinidad,  save  the  but- 
tons, which  shall  bear  the  impress  of  the 
Crown  of  the  Order." 

For  himself,  King  James  commissioned  a 
firm  of  jewelers  to  construct  a  royal  crown. 
In  design  it  was  similar  to  the  one  which  sur- 
mounted the  Cross  of  Trinidad.  It  is  shown 
in  the  photograph  of  the  insignia.  Also,  the 
King  issued  a  set  of  postage  stamps  on 
which  was  a  picture  of  the  island.  They 
were  of  various  colors  and  denominations, 
and  among  stamp  collectors  enjoyed  a  cer- 
tain sale. 

To-day,  as  I  found  when  I  tried  to  procure 

54 


The  Order  of  the  Cross  of  Trinidad. 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

one  to  use  in  this  book,  they  are  worth  many 
times  their  face  value. 

For  some  time  the  affairs  of  the  new  king- 
dom progressed  favorably.  In  San  Francisco, 
King  James,  in  person,  engaged  four  hundred 
coolies  and  fitted  out  a  schooner  which  he  sent 
to  Trinidad,  where  it  made  regular  trips  be- 
tween his  principality  and  Brazil;  an  agent 
was  established  on  the  island  and  the  con- 
struction of  docks,  wharves,  and  houses  was 
begun,  while  at  the  chancellery  in  West  Thir- 
ty-sixth Street,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
was  ready  to  furnish  would-be  settlers  with 
information. 

And  then,  out  of  a  smiling  sky,  a  sudden 
and  unexpected  blow  was  struck  at  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  little  kingdom.  It  was  a  blow 
from  which  it  never  recovered. 

In  July  of  1895,  while  constructing  a  cable 
to  Brazil,  Great  Britain  found  the  Island  of 
Trinidad  lying  in  the  direct  line  she  wished  to 
follow,  and,  as  a  cable  station,  seized  it.  Ob- 
jection to  this  was  made  by  Brazil,  and  at 
Bahia  a  mob  with  stones  pelted  the  sign  of  the 
English  Consul-General. 

By  right  of  Halley's  discovery,   England 

55 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

claimed  the  island ;  as  a  derelict  from  the  main 
land,  Brazil  also  claimed  it.  Between  the 
rivals,  the  world  saw  a  chance  for  war,  and 
the  fact  that  the  island  really  belonged  to  our 
King  James  for  a  moment  was  forgotten. 

But  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  was  at 
his  post.  With  promptitude  and  vigor  he 
acted.  He  addressed  a  circular  note  to  all  the 
Powers  of  Europe,  and  to  our  State  Depart- 
ment a  protest.  It  read  as  follows: 

"  GRANDE  CHANCELLERIE  DE  LA  PRINCIPAUTE  DE  TRINIDAD, 

217  WEST  THIRTY-SIXTH  STREET, 

NEW  YORK  CITY,  U.S.  A., 

NEW   YORK,  July  30,  1895. 

"  To  His  Excellency  Mr.  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States  of  North  America, 
Washington,  D.  C.: 

"  EXCELLENCY — I  have  the  honor  to  recall  to  your 
memory : 

"  i.  That  in  the  course  of  the  month  of  September, 
1893,  Baron  Harden-Hickey  officially  notified  all  the 
Powers  of  his  taking  possession  of  the  uninhabited 
island  of  Trinidad;  and, 

"  2.  That  in  the  course  of  January,  1894,  he  re- 
newed to  all  these  Powers  the  official  notification  of 
the  said  taking  of  possession,  and  informed  them  at 
the  same  time  that  from  that  date  the  land  would  be 
known  as  '  Principality  of  Trinidad ' ;  that  he  took  the 
title  of  '  Prince  of  Trinidad/  and  would  reign  under 
the  name  of  James  I. 

56 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

"  In  consequence  of  these  official  notifications  sev- 
eral Powers  have  recognized  the  new  Principality  and 
its  Prince,  and  at  all  events  none  thought  it  neces- 
sary at  that  epoch  to  raise  objections  or  formulate 
opposition. 

"The  press  of  the  entire  world  has,  on  the  other 
hand,  often  acquainted  readers  with  these  facts,  thus 
giving  to  them  all  possible  publicity.  In  consequence 
of  the  accomplishment  of  these  various  formalities, 
and  as  the  law  of  nations  prescribes  that  '  derelict ' 
territories  belong  to  whoever  will  take  possession  of 
them,  and  as  the  island  of  Trinidad,  which  has  been 
abandoned  for  years,  certainly  belongs  to  the  afore- 
said category,  his  Serene  Highness  Prince  James  I 
was  authorized  to  regard  his  rights  on  the  said  island 
as  perfectly  valid  and  indisputable. 

"  Nevertheless,  your  Excellency  knows  that  re- 
cently, in  spite  of  all  the  legitimate  rights  of  my  august 
sovereign,  an  English  warship  has  disembarked  at 
Trinidad  a  detachment  of  armed  troops  and  taken  pos- 
session of  the  island  in  the  name  of  England. 

"  Following  this  assumption  of  territory,  the  Bra- 
zilian Government,  invoking  a  right  of  ancient  Portu- 
guese occupation  (long  ago  outlawed),  has  notified 
the  English  Government  to  surrender  the  island  to 
Brazil. 

"  I  beg  of  your  Excellency  to  ask  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  of  North  America  to  recog- 
nize the  Principality  of  Trinidad  as  an  independent 
State,  and  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  other 
American  Powers  in  order  to  guarantee  its  neutrality. 

"  Thus  the  Government  of  the  United  States  of 
57 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

North  America  will  once  more  accord  its  powerful  as- 
sistance to  the  cause  of  right  and  of  justice,  misunder- 
stood by  England  and  Brazil,  put  an  end  to  a  situation 
which  threatens  to  disturb  the  peace,  reestablish  con- 
cord between  two  great  States  ready  to  appeal  to  arms, 
and  affirm  itself,  moreover,  as  the  faithful  interpreter 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

"  In  the  expectation  of  your  reply  please  accept, 
Excellency,  the  expression  of  my  elevated  consid- 
eration. 

"  The  Grand  Chancellor,  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs, 

"  COMTE   DE    LA    BOISSIERE." 

At  that  time  Richard  Olney  was  Secretary 
of  State,  and  in  his  treatment  of  the  protest, 
and  of  the  gentleman  who  wrote  it,  he  fully 
upheld  the  reputation  he  made  while  in  office 
of  lack  of  good  manners.  Saying  he  was  un- 
able to  read  the  handwriting  in  which  the  pro- 
test was  written,  he  disposed  of  it  in  a  way 
that  would  suggest  itself  naturally  to  a  states- 
man and  a  gentleman.  As  a  "  crank  "  letter 
he  turned  it  over  to  the  Washington  corre- 
spondents. You  can  imagine  what  they  did 
with  it. 

The  day  following  the  reporters  in  New 
York  swept  down  upon  the  Chancellery,  and 
upon  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  It  was 

c8 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

the  "  silly  season  "  in  August,  there  was  no 
real  news  in  town,  and  the  troubles  of  De  la 
Boissiere  were  allowed  much  space. 

They  laughed  at  him  and  at  his  King,  at 
his  Chancellery,  at  his  broken  English,  at  his 
"  grave  and  courtly  manners/'  even  at  his 
clothes.  But  in  spite  of  the  ridicule,  between 
the  lines  you  could  read  that  to  the  man  him- 
self it  all  was  terribly  real. 

I  had  first  heard  of  the  island  of  Trinidad 
from  two  men  I  knew  who  spent  three  months 
on  it  searching  for  the  treasure,  and  when 
Harden-Hickey  proclaimed  himself  lord  of  the 
island,  through  the  papers  I  had  carefully  fol- 
lowed his  fortunes.  So,  partly  out  of  curios- 
ity, and  partly  out  of  sympathy,  I  called  at  the 
Chancellery. 

I  found  it  in  a  brownstone  house,  in  a  dirty 
neighborhood,  just  west  of  Seventh  Avenue 
and  of  where  now  stands  the  York  Hotel. 
Three  weeks  ago  I  revisited  it  and  found  it 
unchanged.  At  the  time  of  my  first  visit,  on 
the  jamb  of  the  front  door  was  pasted  a  piece 
of  paper  on  which  was  written  in  the  hand- 
writing of  De  la  Boissiere :  "  Chancellerie  de 
la  Principaute  de  Trinidad." 

59 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

The  Chancellery  was  not  exactly  in  its 
proper  setting.  On  its  doorstep  children  of 
the  tenements  were  playing  dolls  with  clothes- 
pins ;  in  the  street  a  huckster  in  raucous  tones 
was  offering  wilted  cabbages  to  women  in 
wrappers  leaning  from  the  fire-escapes;  the 
smells  and  the  heat  of  New  York  in  midsum- 
mer rose  from  the  asphalt.  It  was  a  far  cry 
to  the  wave-swept  island  off  the  coast  of 
Brazil. 

De  la  Boissiere  received  me  with  distrust. 
The  morning  papers  had  made  him  man-shy; 
but,  after  a  few  "  Your  Excellencies  "  and  a 
respectful  inquiry  regarding  "  His  Royal 
Highness,"  his  confidence  revived.  In  the  sit- 
uation he  saw  nothing  humorous,  not  even  in 
an  announcement  on  the  wall  which  read: 
"  Sailings  to  Trinidad."  Of  these  there  were 
two]  on  March  ist,  and  on  October  ist.  On 
the  table  were  many  copies  of  the  Royal  Proc- 
lamation, the  postage  stamps  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment, the  thousand-franc  bonds,  and,  in 
pasteboard  boxes,  the  gold  and  red  enamelled 
crosses  of  the  Order  of  Trinidad. 

He   talked  to  me   frankly   and   fondly   of 

Prince  James.    Indeed,  I  never  met  any  man 

60 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

who  knew  Harden-Hickey  well  who  did  not 
speak  of  him  with  aggressive  loyalty.  If  at 
his  eccentricities  they  smiled,  it  was  with  the 
smile  of  affection.  It  was  easy  to  see  De  la 
Boissiere  regarded  him  not  only  with  the 
affection  of  a  friend,  but  with  the  devotion  of 
a  true  subject.  In  his  manner  he  himself  was 
courteous,  gentle,  and  so  distinguished  that  I 
felt  as  though  I  were  enjoying,  on  intimate 
terms,  an  audience  with  one  of  the  Prime  Min- 
isters of  Europe. 

And  he,  on  his  part,  after  the  ridicule  of  the 
morning  papers,  to  have  any  one  with  outward 
seriousness  accept  his  high  office  and  his  King, 
was,  I  believe,  not  ungrateful. 

I  told  him  I  wished  to  visit  Trinidad,  and  in 
that  I  was  quite  serious.  The  story  of  an 
island  filled  with  buried  treasure,  and  gov- 
erned by  a  king,  whose  native  subjects  were 
turtles  and  seagulls,  promised  to  make  inter- 
esting writing. 

The  Count  was  greatly  pleased.  I  believe 
in  me  he  saw  his  first  bona-fide  settler,  and 
when  I  rose  to  go  he  even  lifted  one  of  the 
Crosses  of  Trinidad  and,  before  my  envious 
eyes,  regarded  it  uncertainly. 

61 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

Perhaps,  had  he  known  that  of  all  decora- 
tions it  was  the  one  I  most  desired ;  had  I  only 
then  and  there  booked  my  passage,  or  sworn 
allegiance  to  King  James,  who  knows  but  that 
to-day  I  might  be  a  Chevalier,  with  my  name 
in  the  Book  of  Gold?  But  instead  of  bend- 
ing the  knee,  I  reached  for  my  hat;  the 
Count  replaced  the  cross  in  its  pasteboard 
box,  and  for  me  the  psychological  moment 
had  passed. 

Others,  more  deserving  of  the  honor,  were 
more  fortunate.  Among  my  fellow  reporters 
who,  like  myself,  came  to  scoff,  and  remained 
to  pray,  was  Henri  Pene  du  Bois,  for  some 
time  until  his  recent  death,  the  brilliant  critic 
of  art  and  music  of  the  American.  Then  he 
was  on  the  Times,  and  Henry  N.  Cary,  now 
of  the  Morning  Telegraph,  was  his  managing 
editor. 

When  Du  Bois  reported  to  Cary  on  his  as- 
signment, he  said :  "  There  is  nothing  funny 
in  that  story.  It's  pathetic.  Both  those  men 
are  in  earnest.  They  are  convinced  they  are 
being  robbed  of  their  rights.  Their  only  fault 
is  that  they  have  imagination,  and  that  the 

rest  of  us  lack  it.    That's  the  way  it  struck  me, 

62 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

and  that's   the  way  the   story  ought  to  be 
written." 

"  Write  it  that  way,"  said  Gary. 

So,  of  all  the  New  York  papers,  the  Times, 
for  a  brief  period,  became  the  official  organ 
of  the  Government  of  James  the  First,  and  in 
time  Gary  and  Du  Bois  were  created  Cheva- 
liers of  the  Order  of  Trinidad,  and  entitled  to 
wear  uniforms  "  similar  to  those  of  the  Cham- 
berlains of  the  Court,  save  that  the  buttons 
bear  the  impress  of  the  Royal  Crown/' 

The  attack  made  by  Great  Britain  and  Bra- 
zil upon  the  independence  of  the  principality, 
while  it  left  Harden-Hickey  in  the  position  of 
a  king  in  exile,  brought  him  at  once  another 
crown,  which,  by  those  who  offered  it  to  him, 
was  described  as  of  incomparably  greater 
value  than  that  of  Trinidad. 

In  the  first  instance  the  man  had  sought  the 
throne ;  in  this  case  the  throne  sought  the  man. 

In  1893  in  San  Francisco,  Ralston  J.  Mar- 
kowe,  a  lawyer  and  a  one-time  officer  of  artil- 
lery in  the  United  States  Army,  gained  re- 
nown as  one  of  the  Morrow  filibustering 
expedition  which  attempted  to  overthrow  the 
Dole  Government  in  the  Hawaiian  Isles  and 

63 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

restore  to  the  throne  Queen  Liliuokalani.  In 
San  Francisco  Markowe  was  nicknamed  the 
"  Prince  of  Honolulu,"  as  it  was  understood, 
should  Liliuokalani  regain  her  crown,  he 
would  be  rewarded  with  some  high  office.  But 
in  the  star  of  Liliuokalani,  Markowe  appar- 
ently lost  faith,  and  thought  he  saw  in  Harden- 
Hickey  timber  more  suitable  for  king-making. 
Accordingly,  twenty- four  days  after  the  "  pro- 
test "  was  sent  to  our  State  Department,  Mar- 
kowe switched  his  allegiance  to  Harden- 
Hickey,  and  to  him  addressed  the  following 
letter: 

"  SAN  FRANCISCO,  August  26,  1895. 
"  BARON  HARDEN-HICKEY,  Los  ANGELES,  CAL.  : 

"  Monseigneur — Your  favor  of  August  16  has  been 
received. 

"  I.  I  am  the  duly  authorized  agent  of  the  Royalist 
party  in  so  far  as  it  is  possible  for  any  one  to  occupy 
that  position  under  existing  circumstances.  With  the 
Queen  in  prison  and  absolutely  cut  off  from  all  com- 
munication with  her  friends,  it  is  out  of  the  question 
for  me  to  carry  anything  like  formal  credentials. 

"  2.  Alienating  any  part  of  the  territory  cannot  give 
rise  to  any  constitutional  questions,  for  the  reason  that 
the  constitutions,  like  the  land  tenures,  are  in  a  state 
of  such  utter  confusion  that  only  a  strong  hand  can 
unravel  them,  and  the  restoration  will  result  in  the 
establishment  of  a  strong  military  government.  If  I 

64 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

go  down  with  the  expedition  I  have  organized  I  shall 
be  in  full  control  of  the  situation  and  in  a  position  to 
carry  out  all  my  contracts. 

"  3.  It  is  the  island  of  Kauai  on  which  I  propose  to 
establish  you  as  an  independent  sovereign. 

"  4.  My  plan  is  to  successively  occupy  all  the  islands, 
leaving  the  capital  to  the  last.  When  the  others  have 
fallen,  the  capital,  being  cut  off  from  all  its  resources, 
will  be  easily  taken,  and  may  very  likely  fall  without 
effort.  I  don't  expect  in  any  case  to  have  to  fortify 
myself  or  to  take  the  defensive,  or  to  have  to  issue  a 
call  to  arms,  as  I  shall  have  an  overwhelming  force  to 
join  me  at  once,  in  addition  to  those  who  go  with  me, 
who  by  themselves  will  be  sufficient  to  carry  every- 
thing before  them  without  active  cooperation  from 
the  people  there. 

"  5.  The  Government  forces  consist  of  about  160 
men  and  boys,  with  very  imperfect  military  training, 
and  of  whom  about  forty  are  officers.  They  are  or- 
ganized as  infantry.  There  are  also  about  600  citizens 
enrolled  as  a  reserve  guard,  who  may  be  called  upon 
in  case  of  an  emergency,  and  about  150  police.  We 
can  fully  rely  upon  the  assistance  of  all  the  police  and 
from  one-quarter  to  one-half  of  the  other  troops.  And 
of  the  remainder  many  will  under  no  circumstances 
engage  in  a  sharp  fight  in  defense  of  the  present  Gov- 
ernment. There  are  now  on  the  island  plenty  of  men 
and  arms  to  accomplish  our  purpose,  and  if  my  expe- 
dition does  not  get  off  very  soon  the  people  there  will 
be  organized  to  do  the  work  without  other  assistance 
from  here  than  the  direction  of  a  few  leaders,  of  which 
they  stand  more  in  need  than  anything  else. 

65 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

"  6.  The  tonnage  of  the  vessel  is  146.  She  at  pres- 
ent has  berth-room  for  twenty  men,  but  bunks  can  be 
arranged  in  the  hold  for  256  more,  with  provision  for 
ample  ventilation.  She  has  one  complete  set  of  sails 
and  two  extra  spars.  The  remaining  information  in 
regard  to  her  I  will  have  to  obtain  and  send  you  to- 
morrow. I  think  it  must  be  clear  to  you  that  the  op- 
portunity now  offered  you  will  be  of  incomparably 
greater  value  at  once  than  Trinidad  would  ever  be. 
Still  hoping  that  I  may  have  an  interview  with  you  at 
an  early  date,  respectfully  yours, 

"RALSTON  J.  MARKOWE." 

What  Harden-Hickey  thought  of  this  is  not 
known,  but  as  two  weeks  before  he  received 
it  he  had  written  Markowe,  asking  him  by 
what  authority  he  represented  the  Royalists 
of  Honolulu,  it  seems  evident  that  when  the 
crown  of  Hawaii  was  first  proffered  him  he 
did  not  at  once  spurn  it. 

He  now  was  in  the  peculiar  position  of 
being  a  deposed  king  of  an  island  in  the  South 
Atlantic,  which  had  been  taken  from  him,  and 
king-elect  of  an  island  in  the  Pacific,  which  was 
his  if  he  could  take  it. 

This  was  in  August  of  1895.  For  the  two 
years  following,  Harden-Hickey  was  a  sol- 
dier of  misfortunes.  Having  lost  his  island 
kingdom,  he  could  no  longer  occupy  himself 

66 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

with  plans  for  its  improvement.  It  had  been 
his  toy.  They  had  taken  it  from  him,  and  the 
loss  and  the  ridicule  which  followed  hurt  him 
bitterly. 

And  for  the  lands  he  really  owned  in  Mex- 
ico and  California,  and  which,  if  he  were  to 
live  in  comfort,  it  was  necessary  he  should 
sell,  he  could  find  no  purchaser ;  and,  moreover, 
having  quarrelled  with  his  father-in-law,  he 
had  cut  off  his  former  supply  of  money.  The 
need  of  it  pinched  him  cruelly. 

The  advertised  cause  of  this  quarrel  was 
sufficiently  characteristic  to  be  the  real  one. 
Moved  by  the  attack  of  Great  Britain  upon 
his  principality,  Harden-Hickey  decided  upon 
reprisals.  It  must  be  remembered  that  always 
he  was  more  Irish  than  French.  On  paper  he 
organized  an  invasion  of  England  from  Ire- 
land, the  home  of  his  ancestors.  It  was  be- 
cause Flagler  refused  to  give  him  money  for 
this  adventure  that  he  broke  with  him.  His 
friends  say  this  was  the  real  reason  of  the 
quarrel,  which  was  a  quarrel  on  the  side  of 
Harden-Hickey  alone. 

And  there  were  other,  more  intimate  troub- 
les. While  not  separated  from  his  wife,  he 

67 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

now  was  seldom  in  her  company.  When  the 
Baroness  was  in  Paris,  Harden-Hickey  was  in 
San  Francisco;  when  she  returned  to  San 
Francisco,  he  was  in  Mexico.  The  fault  seems 
to  have  been  his.  He  was  greatly  admired 
by  pretty  women.  His  daughter  by  his  first 
wife,  now  a  very  beautiful  girl  of  sixteen, 
spent  much  time  with  her  stepmother;  and 
when  not  on  his  father's  ranch  in  Mexico,  his 
son  also,  for  months  together,  was  at  her  side. 
The  husband  approved  of  this,  but  he  himself 
saw  his  wife  infrequently.  Nevertheless,  early 
in  the  spring  of  1898  the  Baroness  leased  a 
house  in  Brockton  Square,  in  Riverside,  Cal., 
where  it  was  understood  by  herself  and  by 
her  friends,  her  husband  would  join  her.  At 
that  time  in  Mexico  he  was  trying  to  dispose 
of  a  large  tract  of  land.  Had  he  been  able  to 
sell  it,  the  money  for  a  time  would  have  kept 
one  even  of  his  extravagancies  contentedly 
rich.  At  least,  he  would  have  been  independent 
of  his  wife  and  of  her  father.  Up  to  February 
of  1898  his  obtaining  this  money  seemed  prob- 
able. 

Early  in  that  month  the  last  prospective 
purchaser  decided  not  to  buy. 

68 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

There  is  no  doubt  that  had  Harden-Hickey 
then  turned  to  his  father-in-law,  that  gentle- 
man, as  he  had  done  before,  would  have  opened 
an  account  for  him. 

But  the  Prince  of  Trinidad  felt  he  could  no 
longer  beg,  even  for  the  money  belonging  to 
his  wife,  from  the  man  he  had  insulted.  He 
could  no  longer  ask  his  wife  to  intercede  for 
him.  He  was  without  money  of  his  own, 
without  the  means  of  obtaining  it;  from  his 
wife  he  had  ceased  to  expect  even  sympathy, 
and  from  the  world  he  knew,  the  fact  that  he 
was  a  self-made  king  caused  him  always  to 
be  pointed  out  with  ridicule  as  a  charlatan,  as 
a  jest. 

The  soldier  of  varying  fortunes,  the  duellist 
and  dreamer,  the  devout  Catholic  and  de- 
vout Buddhist,  saw  the  forty-third  year  of 
his  life  only  as  the  meeting-place  of  many 
fiascos. 

His  mind  was  tormented  with  imaginary 
wrongs,  imaginary  slights,  imaginary  failures. 

This  young  man,  who  could  paint  pictures, 
write  books,  organize  colonies  over-sea,  and 
with  a  sword  pick  the  buttons  from  a  waist- 
coat, forgot  the  twenty  good  years  still  before 

69 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

him;  forgot  that  men  loved  him  for  the  mis- 
takes he  had  made ;  that  in  parts  of  the  great 
city  of  Paris  his  name  was  still  spoken  fondly, 
still  was  famous  and  familiar. 

In  his  book  on  the  "  Ethics  of  Suicide,"  for 
certain  hard  places  in  life  he  had  laid  down  an 
inevitable  rule  of  conduct. 

As  he  saw  it  he  had  come  to  one  of  those 
hard  places,  and  he  would  not  ask  of  others 
what  he  himself  would  not  perform. 

From  Mexico  he  set  out  for  California,  but 
not  to  the  house  his  wife  had  prepared  for 
him.  Instead,  on  February  9,  1898,  at  El 
Paso,  he  left  the  train  and  registered  at  a 
hotel. 

At  7.30  in  the  evening  he  went  to  his  room, 
and  when,  on  the  following  morning,  they 
kicked  in  the  door,  they  found  him  stretched 
rigidly  upon  the  bed,  like  one  lying  in  state, 
with,  near  his  hand,  a  half-emptied  bottle  of 
poison. 

On  a  chair  was  pinned  this  letter  to  his 
wife: 

"  MY  DEAREST — No  news  from  you,  although  you 
have  had  plenty  of  time  to  write.  Harvey  has  written 
me  that  he  has  no  one  in  view  at  present  to  buy  my 

70 


BARON    HARDEN-HICKEY 

land.  Well,  I  shall  have  tasted  the  cup  of  bitterness 
to  the  very  dregs,  but  I  do  not  complain.  Good-by. 
I  forgive  you  your  conduct  toward  me  and  trust  you 
will  be  able  to  forgive  yourself.  I  prefer  to  be  a  dead 
gentleman  to  a  living  blackguard  like  your  father." 

And  when  they  searched  his  open  trunk 
for  something  that  might  identify  the  body 
on  the  bed,  they  found  the  crown  of  Trini- 
dad. 

You  can  imagine  it:  the  mean  hotel  bed- 
room, the  military  figure  with  its  white  face 
and  mustache,  "  a  la  Louis  Napoleon,"  at  rest 
upon  the  pillow,  the  startled  drummers  and 
chambermaids  peering  in  from  the  hall,  and  the 
landlord,  or  coroner,  or  doctor,  with  a  bewil- 
dered countenance,  lifting  to  view  the  royal 
crown  of  gilt  and  velvet. 

The  other  actors  in  this,  as  Harold  Frederic 
called  it,  "  Opera  Bouffe  Monarchy,"  are  still 
living. 

The  Baroness  Harden-Hickey  makes  her 
home  in  this  country. 

The  Count  de  la  Boissiere,  ex-Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  is  still  a  leader  of  the  French 
colony  in  New  York,  and  a  prosperous  com- 
mission merchant  with  a  suite  of  offices  on 

71 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF   FORTUNE 

Fifty-fourth  Street.  By  the  will  of  Harden- 
Hickey  he  is  executor  of  his  estate,  guardian 
of  his  children,  and  what,  for  the  purpose  of 
this  article,  is  of  more  importance,  in  his 
hands  lies  the  future  of  the  kingdom  of  Trini- 
dad. When  Harden-Hickey  killed  himself  the 
title  to  the  island  was  in  dispute.  Should 
young  Harden-Hickey  wish  to  claim  it,  it  still 
would  be  in  dispute.  Meanwhile  by  the  will 
of  the  First  James,  De  la  Boissiere  is  appointed 
perpetual  regent,  a  sort  of  "  receiver/'  and 
executor  of  the  principality. 

To  him  has  been  left  a  royal  decree  signed 
and  sealed,  but  blank.  In  the  will  the  power 
to  fill  in  this  blank  with  a  statement  showing 
the  final  disposition  of  the  island  has  been 
bestowed  upon  De  la  Boissiere. 

So,  some  day,  he  may  proclaim  the  acces- 
sion of  a  new  king,  and  give  a  new  lease  of 
life  to  the  kingdom  of  which  Harden-Hickey 
dreamed. 

But  unless  his  son,  or  wife,  or  daughter, 
should  assert  his  or  her  rights,  which  is  not 
likely  to  happen,  so  ends  the  dynasty  of  James 
the  First  of  Trinidad,  Baron  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire. 

7* 


Baron  Harden-Hickey,  King  James  I.  of  Trinidad. 


BARON   HARDEN-HICKEY 

To  the  wise  ones  in  America  he  was  a  fool, 
and  they  laughed  at  him;  to  the  wiser  ones, 
he  was  a  clever  rascal  who  had  evolved  a  new 
real  estate  scheme  and  was  out  to  rob  the 
people — and  they  respected  him.  To  my 
mind,  of  them  all,  Harden-Hickey  was  the 
wisest. 

Granted  one  could  be  serious,  what  could  be 
more  delightful  than  to  be  your  own  king  on 
your  own  island? 

The  comic  paragraphers,  the  business  men 
of  "  hard,  common  sense,"  the  captains  of  in- 
dustry who  laughed  at  him  and  his  national 
resources  of  buried  treasure,  turtles'  eggs, 
and  guano,  with  his  bodyguard  of  Zouaves, 
and  his  Grand  Cross  of  Trinidad,  certainly 
possessed  many  things  that  Harden-Hickey 
lacked.  But  they  in  turn  lacked  the  things 
that  made  him  happy ;  the  power  to  "  make 
believe/'  the  love  of  romance,  the  touch  of 
adventure  that  plucked  him  by  the  sleeve. 

When,  as  boys,  we  used  to  say :  "  Let's  pre- 
tend we're  pirates,"  as  a  man,  Harden-Hickey 
begged:  "  Let's  pretend  I'm  a  king." 

But  the  trouble  was,  the  other  boys  had 
grown  up  and  would  not  pretend. 

73 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

For  some  reason  his  end  always  reminds 
me  of  the  closing  line  of  Pinero's  play,  when 
the  adventuress,  Mrs.  Tanqueray,  kills  her- 
self, and  her  virtuous  stepchild  says :  "  If  we 
had  only  been  kinder !  " 


74 


Ill 

WINSTON   SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

IN  the  strict  sense  of  the  phrase,  a  soldier 
of  fortune  is  a  man  who  for  pay,  or  for 
the  love  of  adventure,  fights  under  the  flag  of 
any  country. 

In  the  bigger  sense  he  is  the  kind  of  man 
who  in  any  walk  of  life  makes  his  own  fortune, 
who  when  he  sees  it  coming,  leaps  to  meet  it, 
and  turns  it  to  his  advantage. 

Than  Winston  Spencer  Churchill  to-day 
there  are  few  young  men — and  he  is  a  very 
young  man — who  have  met  more  varying  fort- 
unes, and  none  who  has  more  frequently  bent 
them  to  his  own  advancement.  To  him  it  has 
been  indifferent  whether,  at  the  moment,  the 
fortune  seemed  good  or  evil,  in  the  end  always 
it  was  good. 

As  a  boy  officer,  when  other  subalterns  were 
playing  polo,  and  at  the  Gaiety  Theatre  at- 
tending night  school,  he  ran  away  to  Cuba 

75 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

and  fought  with  the  Spaniards.  For  such  a 
breach  of  military  discipline,  any  other  officer 
would  have  been  court-martialed.  Even  his 
friends  feared  that  by  his  foolishness  his  career 
in  the  army  was  at  an  end.  Instead,  his  esca- 
pade was  made  a  question  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  the  fact  brought  him  such  pub- 
licity that  the  Daily  Graphic  paid  him  hand- 
somely to  write  on  the  Cuban  Revolution,  and 
the  Spanish  Government  rewarded  him  with 
the  Order  of  Military  Merit. 

At  the  very  outbreak  of  the  Boer  War  he 
was  taken  prisoner.  It  seemed  a  climax  of 
misfortune.  With  his  brother  officers  he  had 
hoped  in  that  campaign  to  acquit  himself  with 
credit,  and  that  he  should  lie  inactive  in  Pre- 
toria appeared  a  terrible  calamity.  To  the 
others,  who,  through  many  heart-breaking 
months,  suffered  imprisonment,  it  continued 
to  be  a  calamity.  But  within  six  weeks  of  his 
capture  Churchill  escaped,  and,  after  many 
adventures,  rejoined  his  own  army  to  find  that 
the  calamity  had  made  him  a  hero. 

When  after  the  battle  of  Omdurman,  in  his 
book  on  "  The  River  War/'  he  attacked  Lord 

Kitchener,  those  who  did  not  like  him,  and 

76 


Winston  Churchill. 

In  the  uniform  of  the  Fourth  Queen's  Own  Hussars,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one,  when  he  fought  with  the  Spaniards. 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

they  were  many,  said :  "  That's  the  end  of 
Winston  in  the  army.  He'll  never  get  another 
chance  to  criticise  K.  of  K." 

But  only  two  years  later  the  chance  came, 
when,  no  longer  a  subaltern,  but  as  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  patronized 
Kitchener  by  defending  him  from  the  attacks 
of  others.  Later,  when  his  assaults  upon  the 
leaders  of  his  own  party  closed  to  him,  even 
in  his  own  constituency,  the  Conservative  de- 
bating clubs,  again  his  ill-wishers  said :  "  This 
is  the  end.  He  has  ridiculed  those  who  sit  in 
high  places.  He  has  offended  his  cousin  and 
patron,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough.  Without 
political  friends,  without  the  influence  and 
money  of  the  Marlborough  family  he  is  a  polit- 
ical nonentity."  That  was  eighteen  months 
ago.  To-day,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  is 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Government  party, 
Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  and  with 
the  Liberals  the  most  popular  young  man  in 
public  life. 

Only  last  Christmas,  at  a  banquet,  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey,  the  new  Foreign  Secretary,  said  of 
him :  "  Mr.  Winston  Churchill  has  achieved 
distinction  in  at  least  five  different  careers — 

77 


REAL    SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

as  a  soldier,  a  war  correspondent,  a  lecturer, 
an  author,  and  last,  but  not  least,  as  a  politi- 
cian. I  have  understated  it  even  now,  for  he 
has  achieved  two  careers  as  a  politician — one 
on  each  side  of  the  House.  His  first  career 
on  the  Government  side  was  a  really  distin- 
guished career.  I  trust  the  second  will  be 
even  more  distinguished — and  more  pro- 
longed. The  remarkable  thing  is  that  he  has 
done  all  this  when,  unless  appearances  very 
much  belie  him,  he  has  not  reached  the  age  of 
sixty-four,  which  is  the  minimum  age  at  which 
the  politician  ceases  to  be  young." 

Winston  Leonard  Spencer  Churchill  was 
born  thirty-two  years  ago,  in  November,  1874. 
By  birth  he  is  half- American.  His  father  was 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  and  his  mother  was 
Jennie  Jerome,  of  New  York.  On  the  father's 
side  he  is  the  grandchild  of  the  seventh  Duke 
of  Marlborough,  on  the  distaff  side,  of  Leon- 
ard Jerome. 

To  a  student  of  heredity  it  would  be  inter- 
esting to  try  and  discover  from  which  of 
these  ancestors  Churchill  drew  those  qualities 
which  in  him  are  most  prominent,  and  which 
have  led  to  his  success. 

78 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

What  he  owes  to  his  father  and  mother  it 
is  difficult  to  overestimate,  almost  as  difficult 
as  to  overestimate  what  he  has  accomplished 
by  his  own  efforts. 

He  was  not  a  child  born  a  full-grown  genius 
of  commonplace  parents.  Rather  his  fate 
threatened  that  he  should  always  be  known  as 
the  son  of  his  father.  And  certainly  it  was 
asking  much  of  a  boy  that  he  should  live  up 
to  a  father  who  was  one  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous, clever,  and  erratic  statesmen  of  the  later 
Victorian  era,  and  a  mother  who  is  as  brilliant 
as  she  is  beautiful. 

For  at  no  time  was  the  American  wife  con- 
tent to  be  merely  ornamental.  Throughout 
the  political  career  of  her  husband  she  was  his 
helpmate,  and  as  an  officer  of  the  Primrose 
League,  as  an  editor  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Review,  as,  for  many  hot,  weary  months  in 
Durban  Harbor,  the  head  of  the  hospital  ship 
Maine,  she  has  shown  an  acute  mind  and  real 
executive  power.  At  the  polls  many  votes  that 
would  not  respond  to  the  arguments  of  the 
husband,  and  later  of  the  son,  were  gained 
over  to  the  cause  by  the  charm  and  wit  of  the 
American  woman. 

79 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

In  his  earlier  days,  if  one  can  have  days  any 
earlier  than  those  he  now  enjoys,  Churchill 
was  entirely  influenced  by  two  things:  the 
tremendous  admiration  he  felt  for  his  father, 
which  filled  him  with  ambition  to  follow  in  his 
orbit,  and  the  camaraderie  of  his  mother,  who 
treated  him  less  like  a  mother  than  a  sister 
and  companion. 

Indeed,  Churchill  was  always  so  precocious 
that  I  cannot  recall  the  time  when  he  was 
young  enough  to  be  Lady  Randolph's  son; 
certainly,  I  cannot  recall  the  time  when  she 
was  old  enough  to  be  his  mother. 

When  first  I  knew  him  he  had  passed 
through  Harrow  and  Sandhurst  and  was  a 
Second  Lieutenant  in  the  Queen's  Own  Hus- 
sars. He  was  just  of  age,  but  appeared  much 
younger. 

He  was  below  medium  height,  a  slight,  deli- 
cate-looking boy;  although,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
extremely  strong,  with  blue  eyes,  many  freck- 
les, and  hair  which  threatened  to  be  a  decided 
red,  but  which  now  has  lost  its  fierceness. 
When  he  spoke  it  was  with  a  lisp,  which  also 
has  changed,  and  which  now  appears  to  be 

merely  an  intentional  hesitation. 

80 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

His  manner  of  speaking  was  nervous,  eager, 
explosive.  He  used  many  gestures,  some  of 
which  were  strongly  reminiscent  of  his  father, 
of  whom  he,  unlike  most  English  lads,  who 
shy  at  mentioning  a  distinguished  parent,  con- 
stantly spoke. 

He  even  copied  his  father  in  his  little  tricks 
of  manner.  Standing  with  hands  shoved 
under  the  frock  coat  and  one  resting  on  each 
hip  as  though  squeezing  in  the  waist  line; 
when  seated,  resting  the  elbows  on  the  arms  of 
the  chair  and  nervously  locking  and  unclasp- 
ing fingers,  are  tricks  common  to  both. 

He  then  had  and  still  has  a  most  embarrass- 
ing habit  of  asking  many  questions ;  embarrass- 
ing, sometimes,  because  the  questions  are  so 
frank,  and  sometimes  because  they  lay  bare  the 
wide  expanse  of  one's  own  ignorance. 

At  that  time,  although  in  his  twenty-first 
year,  this  lad  twice  had  been  made  a  question 
in  the  House  of  Commons. 

That  in  itself  had  rendered  him  conspicuous. 
When  you  consider  out  of  Great  Britain's  four 
hundred  million  subjects  how  many  live,  die, 
and  are  buried  without  at  any  age  having 
drawn  down  upon  themselves  the  anger  of  the 

81 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

House  of  Commons,  to  have  done  so  twice, 
before  one  has  passed  his  twenty-first  year, 
seems  to  promise  a  lurid  future. 

The  first  time  Churchill  disturbed  the  august 
assemblage  in  which  so  soon  he  was  to  become 
a  leader  was  when  he  "  ragged "  a  brother 
subaltern  named  Bruce  and  cut  up  his  saddle 
and  accoutrements.  The  second  time  was 
when  he  ran  away  to  Cuba  to  fight  with  the 
Spaniards. 

After  this  campaign,  on  the  first  night  of 
his  arrival  in  London,  he  made  his  maiden 
speech.  He  delivered  it  in  a  place  of  less  dig- 
nity than  the  House  of  Commons,  but  one, 
throughout  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies,  as 
widely  known  and  as  well  supported.  This 
was  the  Empire  Music  Hall. 

At  the  time  Mrs.  Ormiston  Chant  had  raised 

*" 
objections  to  the  presence  in  the  Music  Hall  of 

certain  young  women,  and  had  threatened, 
unless  they  ceased  to  frequent  its  promenade, 
to  have  the  license  of  the  Music  Hall  revoked. 
As  a  compromise,  the  management  ceased  sell- 
ing liquor,  and  on  the  night  Churchill  visited 
the  place  the  bar  in  the  promenade  was  barri- 
caded with  scantling  and  linen  sheets.  With 

82 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

the  thirst  of  tropical  Cuba  still  upon  him, 
Churchill  asked  for  a  drink,  which  was  denied 
him,  and  the  crusade,  which  in  his  absence  had 
been  progressing  fiercely,  was  explained.  Any 
one  else  would  have  taken  no  for  his  answer, 
and  have  sought  elsewhere  for  his  drink.  Not 
so  Churchill.  What  he  did  is  interesting,  be- 
cause it  was  so  extremely  characteristic.  Now 
he  would  not  do  it;  then  he  was  twenty-one. 

He  scrambled  to  the  velvet-covered  top  of 
the  railing  which  divides  the  auditorium  from 
the  promenade,  and  made  a  speech.  It  was  a 
plea  in  behalf  of  his  "  Sisters,  the  Ladies  of 
the  Empire  Promenade/' 

"  Where,"  he  asked  of  the  ladies  themselves 
and  of  their  escorts  crowded  below  him  in  the 
promenade,  "  does  the  Englishman  in  London 
always  find  a  welcome?  Where  does  he  first 
go  when,  battle-scarred  and  travel-worn,  he 
reaches  home?  Who  is  always  there  to  greet 
him  with  a  smile,  and  join  him  in  a  drink? 
Who  is  ever  faithful,  ever  true — the  Ladies  of 
the  Empire  Promenade." 

The  laughter  and  cheers  that  greeted  this, 
and  the  tears  of  the  ladies  themselves,  natu- 
rally brought  the  performance  on  the  stage  to 

83 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

a  stop,  and  the  vast  audience  turned  in  the 
seats  and  boxes. 

They  saw  a  little  red-haired  boy  in  evening 
clothes,  balancing  himself  on  the  rail  of  the 
balcony,  and  around  him  a  great  crowd,  cheer- 
ing, shouting,  and  bidding  him  "Go  on ! " 

Churchill  turned  with  delight  to  the  larger 
audience,  and  repeated  his  appeal.  The  house 
shook  with  laughter  and  applause. 

The  commissionaires  and  police  tried  to 
reach  him  and  a  good-tempered  but  very  de- 
termined mob  of  well-dressed  gentlemen  and 
cheering  girls  fought  them  back.  In  triumph 
Churchill  ended  his  speech  by  begging  his 
hearers  to  give  "  fair  play "  to  the  women, 
and  to  follow  him  in  a  charge  upon  the  bar- 
ricades. 

The  charge  was  instantly  made,  the  barri- 
cades were  torn  down,  and  the  terrified  man- 
agement ordered  that  drink  be  served  to  its 
victorious  patrons. 

Shortly  after  striking  this  blow  for  the  lib- 
erty of  others,  Churchill  organized  a  dinner 
which  illustrated  the  direction  in  which  at  that 
age  his  mind  was  working,  and  showed  that 

his  ambition  was  already  abnormal.    The  din- 

84 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

ner  was  given  to  those  of  his  friends  and 
acquaintances  who  "  were  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  and  who  in  twenty  years  would 
control  the  destinies  of  the  British  Empire." 

As  one  over  the  age  limit,  or  because  he  did 
not  consider  me  an  empire-controlling  force, 
on  this  great  occasion,  I  was  permitted  to  be 
present.  But  except  that  the  number  of  in- 
cipient empire-builders  was  very  great,  that 
they  were  very  happy,  and  that  save  the  host 
himself  none  of  them  took  his  idea  seriously, 
I  would  not  call  it  an  evening  of  historical  in- 
terest. But  the  fact  is  interesting  that  of  all 
the  boys  present,  as  yet,  the  host  seems  to  be 
the  only  one  who  to  any  conspicuous  extent 
is  disturbing  the  destinies  of  Great  Britain. 
However,  the  others  can  reply  that  ten  of  the 
twenty  years  have  not  yet  passed. 

When  he  was  twenty-three  Churchill  ob- 
tained leave  of  absence  from  his  regiment,  and 
as  there  was  no  other  way  open  to  him  to  see 
fighting,  as  a  correspondent  he  joined  the 
Malakand  Field  Force  in  India. 

It  may  be  truthfully  said  that  by  his  pres- 
ence in  that  frontier  war  he  made  it  and  him- 
self famous.  His  book  on  that  campaign  is 

85 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

his  best  piece  of  war  reporting.  To  the  civil- 
ian reader  it  has  all  the  delight  of  one  of  Kip- 
ling's Indian  stories,  and  to  writers  on  mili- 
tary subjects  it  is  a  model.  But  it  is  a  model 
very  few  can  follow,  and  which  Churchill  him- 
self was  unable  to  follow,  for  the  reason  that 
only  once  is  it  given  a  man  to  be  twenty-three 
years  of  age. 

The  picturesque  hand-to-hand  fighting,  the 
night  attacks,  the  charges  up  precipitous  hills, 
the  retreats  made  carrying  the  wounded  under 
constant  fire,  which  he  witnessed  and  in  which 
he  bore  his  part,  he  never  again  can  see  with 
the  same  fresh  and  enthusiastic  eyes.  Then 
it  was  absolutely  new,  and  the  charm  of  the 
book  and  the  value  of  the  book  are  that  with 
the  intolerance  of  youth  he  attacks  in  the  ser- 
vice evils  that  older  men  prefer  to  let  lie,  and 
that  with  the  ingenuousness  of  youth  he  tells 
of  things  which  to  the  veteran  have  become 
unimportant,  or  which  through  usage  he  is  no 
longer  even  able  to  see. 

In  his  three  later  war  books,  the  wonder  of 
it,  the  horror  of  it,  the  quick  admiration  for 
brave  deeds  and  daring  men,  give  place,  in 
"The  River  War,"  to  the  critical  point  of 

86 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

view  of  the  military  expert,  and  in  his  two 
books  on  the  Boer  War  to  the  rapid  impres- 
sions of  the  journalist.  In  these  latter  books 
he  tells  you  of  battles  he  has  seen,  in  the  first 
one  he  made  you  see  them. 

For  his  services  with  the  Malakand  Field 
Force  he  received  the  campaign  medal  with 
clasp,  and,  "  in  despatches,"  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Jeffreys  praises  "the  courage  and  reso- 
lution of  Lieutenant  W.  L.  S.  Churchill, 
Fourth  Hussars,  with  the  force  as  corre- 
spondent of  the  Pioneer" 

From  the  operations  around  Malakand,  he 
at  once  joined  Sir  William  Lockhart  as  orderly 
officer,  and  with  the  Tirah  Expedition  went 
through  that  campaign. 

For  this  his  Indian  medal  gained  a  second 
clasp. 

This  was  in  the  early  part  of  1898.  In  spite 
of  the  time  taken  up  as  an  officer  and  as  a  cor- 
respondent, he  finished  his  book  on  the  Mala- 
kand Expedition,  and  then,  as  it  was  evident 
Kitchener  would  soon  attack  Khartum,  he 
jumped  across  to  Egypt  and  again  as  a  corre- 
spondent took  part  in  the  advance  upon  that 
city. 

8; 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

Thus,  in  one  year,  he  had  seen  service  in 
three  campaigns. 

On  the  day  of  the  battle  his  luck  followed 
him.  Kitchener  had  attached  him  to  the 
Twenty-first  Lancers,  and  it  will  be  remem- 
bered the  event  of  the  battle  was  the  charge 
made  by  that  squadron.  It  was  no  canter,  no 
easy  "  pig-sticking  " ;  it  was  a  fight  to  get  in 
and  a  fight  to  get  out,  with  frenzied  followers 
of  the  Khalifa  hanging  to  the  bridle  reins, 
hacking  at  the  horses'  hamstrings,  and  slash- 
ing and  firing  pointblank  at  the  troopers. 
Churchill  was  in  that  charge.  He  received  the 
medal  with  clasp. 

Then  he  returned  home  and  wrote  "  The 
River  War."  This  book  is  the  last  word  on 
the  campaigns  up  the  Nile.  From  the  death 
of  Gordon  in  Khartum  to  the  capture  of  the 
city  by  Kitchener,  it  tells  the  story  of  the  many 
gallant  fights,  the  wearying  failures,  the  many 
expeditions  into  the  hot,  boundless  desert,  the 
long,  slow  progress  toward  the  final  winning 
of  the  Sudan. 

The  book  made  a  distinct  sensation.  It  was 
a  work  that  one  would  expect  from  a  Lieuten- 
ant-General,  when,  after  years  of  service  in 

88 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

Egypt,  he  laid  down  his  sword  to  pen  the  story 
of  his  life's  work.  From  a  Second  Lieutenant, 
who  had  been  on  the  Nile  hardly  long  enough 
to  gain  the  desert  tan,  it  was  a  revelation.  As 
a  contribution  to  military  history  it  was  so  val- 
uable that  for  the  author  it  made  many  ad- 
mirers, but  on  account  of  his  criticisms  of  his 
superior  officers  it  gained  him  even  more 
enemies. 

This  is  a  specimen  of  the  kind  of  thing  that 
caused  the  retired  army  officer  to  sit  up  and 
choke  with  apoplexy : 

"  General  Kitchener,  who  never  spares  him- 
self, cares  little  for  others.  He  treated  all  men 
like  machines,  from  the  private  soldiers,  whose 
salutes  he  disdained,  to  the  superior  officers, 
whom  he  rigidly  controlled.  The  comrade 
who  had  served  with  him  and  under  him 
for  many  years,  in  peace  and  peril,  was 
flung  aside  as  soon  as  he  ceased  to  be  of 
use.  The  wounded  Egyptian  and  even  the 
wounded  British  soldier  did  not  excite  his 
interest." 

When  in  the  service  clubs  they  read  that, 
the  veterans  asked  each  other  their  favorite 
question  of  what  is  the  army  coming  to,  and 

89 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

to  their  own  satisfaction  answered  it  by  point- 
ing out  that  when  a  lieutenant  of  twenty-four 
can  reprimand  the  commanding  general  the 
army  is  going  to  the  dogs. 

To  the  newspapers,  hundreds  of  them,  over 
their  own  signatures,  on  the  service  club  sta- 
tionery, wrote  violent,  furious  letters,  and  the 
newspapers  themselves,  besides  the  ordinary 
reviews,  gave  to  the  book  editorial  praise  and 
editorial  condemnation. 

Equally  disgusted  were  the  younger  officers 
of  the  service.  They  nicknamed  his  book  "  A 
Subaltern's  Advice  to  Generals,"  and  called 
Churchill  himself  a  "  Medal  Snatcher."  A 
medal  snatcher  is  an  officer  who,  whenever 
there  is  a  rumor  of  war,  leaves  his  men  to  the 
care  of  any  one,  and  through  influence  in  high 
places  and  for  the  sake  of  the  campaign  medal 
has  himself  attached  to  the  expeditionary 
force.  But  Churchill  never  was  a  medal 
hunter.  The  routine  of  barrack  life  irked  him, 
and  in  foreign  parts  he  served  his  country  far 
better  than  by  remaining  at  home  and  inspect- 
ing awkward  squads  and  attending  guard 
mount.  Indeed,  the  War  Office  could  cover 

with  medals  the  man  who  wrote  "  The  Story 

9o 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

of  the  Malakand  Field  Force "  and  "  The 
River  War  "  and  still  be  in  his  debt. 

In  October,  1898,  a  month  after  the  battle 
of  Omdurman,  Churchill  made  his  debut  as  a 
political  speaker  at  minor  meetings  in  Dover 
and  Rotherhithe.  History  does  not  record 
that  these  first  speeches  set  fire  to  the  Channel. 
During  the  winter  he  finished  and  published 
his  "  River  War/'  and  in  the  August  of  the 
following  summer,  1899,  a^  a  by-election, 
offered  himself  as  Member  of  Parliament  for 
Oldham. 

In  the  Daily  Telegraph  his  letters  from  the 
three  campaigns  in  India  and  Egypt  had  made 
his  name  known,  and  there  was  a  general  de- 
sire to  hear  him  and  to  see  him.  In  one  who 
had  attacked  Kitchener  of  Khartum,  the  men 
of  Oldham  expected  to  find  a  stalwart  veteran, 
bearded,  and  with  a  voice  of  command.  When 
they  were  introduced  to  a  small  red-haired  boy 
with  a  lisp,  they  refused  to  take  him  seriously. 
In  England  youth  is  an  unpardonable  thing. 
Lately,  Curzon,  Churchill,  Edward  Grey, 
Hugh  Cecil,  and  others  have  made  it  less  rep- 
rehensible. But,  in  spite  of  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign, in  which  Lady  Randolph  took  an  active 

91 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

part,  Oldham  decided  it  was  not  ready  to 
accept  young  Churchill  for  a  member.  Later 
he  was  Oldham's  only  claim  to  fame. 

A  week  after  he  was  defeated  he  sailed  for 
South  Africa,  where  war  with  the  Boers  was 
imminent.  He  had  resigned  from  his  regiment 
and  went  south  as  war  correspondent  for  the 
Morning  Post. 

Later  in  the  war  he  held  a  commission  as 
Lieutenant  in  the  South  African  Light  Horse, 
a  regiment  of  irregular  cavalry,  and  on  the 
staffs  of  different  generals  acted  as  galloper 
and  aide-de-camp.  To  this  combination  of 
duties,  which  was  in  direct  violation  of  a  rule 
of  the  War  Office,  his  brother  officers  and  his 
fellow  correspondents  objected;  but,  as  in  each 
of  his  other  campaigns  he  had  played  this  dual 
role,  the  press  censors  considered  it  a  tradi- 
tional privilege,  and  winked  at  it.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  record,  Churchill's  soldiering  never 
seemed  to  interfere  with  his  writing,  nor,  in  a 
fight,  did  his  duty  to  his  paper  ever  prevent 
him  from  mixing  in  as  a  belligerent. 

War  was  declared  October  Qth,  and  only  a 
month  later,  while  scouting  in  the  armored 

train  along  the  railroad  line  between  Pieter- 

92 


Winston  Churchill. 

In  the  uniform  of  lieutenant  of  South  African  Light  Horse. 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

maritzburg  and  Colenso,  the  cars  were  derailed 
and  Churchill  was  taken  prisoner. 

The  train  was  made  up  of  three  flat  cars, 
two  armored  cars,  and  between  them  the  en- 
gine, with  three  cars  coupled  to  the  cow- 
catcher and  two  to  the  tender. 

On  the  outward  trip  the  Boers  did  not  show 
themselves,  but  as  soon  as  the  English  passed 
Frere  station  they  rolled  a  rock  on  the  track 
at  a  point  where  it  was  hidden  by  a  curve. 
On  the  return  trip,  as  the  English  approached 
this  curve  the  Boers  opened  fire  with  artil- 
lery and  pompoms.  The  engineer,  in  his 
eagerness  to  escape,  rounded  the  curve  at  full 
speed,  and,  as  the  Boers  had  expected,  hit  the 
rock.  The  three  forward  cars  were  derailed, 
and  one  of  them  was  thrown  across  the  track, 
thus  preventing  the  escape  of  the  engine  and 
the  two  rear  cars.  From  these  Captain  Hal- 
dane,  who  was  in  command,  with  a  detach- 
ment of  the  Dublins,  kept  up  a  steady  fire  on 
the  enemy,  while  Churchill  worked  to  clear  the 
track.  To  assist  him  he  had  a  company  of 
Natal  volunteers,  and  those  who  had  not  run 
away  of  the  train  hands  and  break-down  crew. 

"  We  were  not  long  left  in  the  comparative 

93 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

safety  of  a  railroad  accident/'  Churchill  writes 
to  his  paper.  ''  The  Boers'  guns,  swiftly 
changing  their  position,  reopened  fire  from  a 
distance  of  thirteen  hundred  yards  before  any 
one  had  got  out  of  the  stage  of  exclamations. 
The  tapping  rifle-fire  spread  along  the  hills, 
until  it  encircled  the  wreckage  on  three  sides, 
and  from  some  high  ground  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  line  a  third  field-gun  came  into 
action." 

For  Boer  marksmen  with  Mausers  and  pom- 
poms, a  wrecked  railroad  train  at  thirteen 
hundred  yards  was  as  easy  a  bull's-eye  as  the 
hands  of  the  first  baseman  to  the  pitcher,  and 
while  the  engine  butted  and  snorted  and  the 
men  with  their  bare  hands  tore  at  the  massive 
beams  of  the  freight  car,  the  bullets  and  shells 
beat  about  them. 

"  I  have  had  in  the  last  four  years  many 
strange  and  varied  experiences,"  continues 
young  Churchill,  "  but  nothing  was  so  thrill- 
ing as  this;  to  wait  and  struggle  among  these 
clanging,  rending  iron-boxes,  with  the  repeat- 
ed explosions  of  the  shells,  the  noise  of  the 
projectiles  striking  the  cars,  the  hiss  as  they 
passed  in  the  air,  the  grunting  and  puffing  of 

94 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

the  engine — poor,  tortured  thing,  hammered 
by  at  least  a  dozen  shells,  any  one  of  which, 
by  penetrating  the  boiler,  might  have  made  an 
end  of  all — the  expectation  of  destruction  as 
a  matter  of  course,  the  realization  of  power- 
lessness — all  this  for  seventy  minutes  by  the 
clock,  with  only  four  inches  of  twisted  iron 
between  danger,  captivity,  and  shame  on  one 
side — and  freedom  on  the  other." 

The  "  protected  "  train  had  proved  a  death- 
trap, and  by  the  time  the  line  was  clear  every 
fourth  man  was  killed  or  wounded.  Only 
the  engine,  with  the  more  severely  wounded 
heaped  in  the  cab  and  clinging  to  its  cow- 
catcher and  foot-rails,  made  good  its  escape. 
Among  those  left  behind,  a  Tommy,  without 
authority,  raised  a  handkerchief  on  his  rifle, 
and  the  Boers  instantly  ceased  firing  and  came 
galloping  forward  to  accept  surrender.  There 
was  a  general  stampede  to  escape.  Seeing 
that  Lieutenant  Franklin  was  gallantly  trying 
to  hold  his  men,  Churchill,  who  was  safe  on 
the  engine,  jumped  from  it  and  ran  to  his  as- 
sistance. Of  what  followed,  this  is  his  own 
account : 

"  Scarcely  had  the  locomotive  left  me  than 

95 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

I  found  myself  alone  in  a  shallow  cutting,  and 
none  of  our  soldiers,  who  had  all  surrendered, 
to  be  seen.  Then  suddenly  there  appeared  on 
the  line  at  the  end  of  the  cutting  two  men  not 
in  uniform.  '  Plate-layers/  I  said  to  myself, 
and  then,  with  a  surge  of  realization,  '  Boers/ 
My  mind  retains  a  momentary  impression  of 
these  tall  figures,  full  of  animated  movement, 
clad  in  dark  flapping  clothes,  with  slouch, 
storm-driven  hats,  posing  their  rifles  hardly 
a  hundred  yards  away.  I  turned  and  ran  be- 
tween the  rails  of  the  track,  and  the  only 
thought  I  achieved  was  this :  '  Boer  marks- 
manship/ 

"  Two  bullets  passed,  both  within  a  foot, 
one  on  either  side.  I  flung  myself  against  the 
banks  of  the  cutting.  But  they  gave  no  cover. 
Another  glance  at  the  figures;  one  was  now 
kneeling  to  aim.  Again  I  darted  forward. 
Again  two  soft  kisses  sucked  in  the  air,  but 
nothing  struck  me.  I  must  get  out  of  the  cut- 
ting— that  damnable  corridor.  I  scrambled 
up  the  bank.  The  earth  sprang  up  beside  me, 
and  a  bullet  touched  my  hand,  but  outside  the 
cutting  was  a  tiny  depression.  I  crouched  in 

this,  struggling  to  get  my  wind.    On  the  other 

96 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

side  of  the  railway  a  horseman  galloped  up, 
shouting  to  me  and  waving  his  hand.  He  was 
scarcely  forty  yards  off.  With  a  rifle  I  could 
have  killed  him  easily.  I  knew  nothing  of  the 
white  flag,  and  the  bullets  had  made  me  sav- 
age. I  reached  down  for  my  Mauser  pistol. 
I  had  left  it  in  the  cab  of  the  engine.  Between 
me  and  the  horseman  there  was  a  wire  fence. 
Should  I  continue  to  fly  ?  The  idea  of  another 
shot  at  such  a  short  range  decided  me.  Death 
stood  before  me,  grim  and  sullen ;  Death  with- 
out his  light-hearted  companion,  Chance.  So 
I  held  up  my  hand,  and,  like  Mr.  Jorrocks's 
foxes,  cried  '  Capivy ! '  Then  I  was  herded 
with  the  other  prisoners  in  a  miserable  group, 
and  about  the  same  time  I  noticed  that  my  hand 
was  bleeding,  and  it  began  to  pour  with  rain. 

'''  Two  days  before  I  had  written  to  an  offi- 
cer at  home :  '  There  has  been  a  great  deal  too 
much  surrendering  in  this  war,  and  I  hope 
people  who  do  so  will  not  be  encouraged/  " 

With  other  officers,  Churchill  was  impris- 
oned in  the  State  Model  Schools,  situated  in 
the  heart  of  Pretoria.  It  was  distinctly  char- 
acteristic that  on  the  very  day  of  his  arrival 
he  began  to  plan  to  escape. 

97 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

Toward  this  end  his  first  step  was  to  lose 
his  campaign  hat,  which  he  recognized  was 
too  obviously  the  hat  of  an  English  officer. 
The  burgher  to  whom  he  gave  money  to  pur- 
chase him  another  innocently  brought  him  a 
Boer  sombrero.  >-.: 

Before  his  chance  to  escape  came  a  month 
elapsed,  and  the  opportunity  that  then  offered 
was  less  an  opportunity  to  escape  than  to  get 
himself  shot. 

The  State  Model  Schools  were  surrounded 
by  the  children's  playgrounds,  penned  in  by  a 
high  wall,  and  at  night,  while  they  were  used 
as  a  prison,  brilliantly  lighted  by  electric  lights. 
After  many  nights  of  observation,  Churchill 
discovered  that  while  the  sentries  were  pacing 
their  beats  there  was  a  moment  when  to  them 
a  certain  portion  of  the  wall  was  in  darkness. 
This  was  due  to  cross-shadows  cast  by  the 
electric  lights.  On  the  other  side  of  this  wall 
there  was  a  private  house  set  in  a  garden  filled 
with  bushes.  Beyond  this  was  the  open  street. 

To  scale  the  wall  was  not  difficult;  the  real 
danger  lay  in  the  fact  that  at  no  time  were  the 
sentries  farther  away  than  fifteen  yards,  and 

the  chance  of  being  shot  by  one  or  both  of 

98 


Winston  Churchill. 

As  war  correspondent  in  South  Africa  at  the  time  of  his  capture. 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

them  was  excellent.  To  a  brother  officer 
Churchill  confided  his  purpose,  and  together 
they  agreed  that  some  night  when  the  sen- 
tries had  turned  from  the  dark  spot  on  the 
wall  they  would  scale  it  and  drop  among  the 
bushes  in  the  garden.  After  they  reached  the 
garden,  should  they  reach  it  alive,  what  they 
were  to  do  they  did  not  know.  How  they  were 
to  proceed  through  the  streets  and  out  of  the 
city,  how  they  were  to  pass  unchallenged  un- 
der its  many  electric  lights  and  before  the  illu- 
minated shop  windows,  how  to  dodge  patrols, 
and  how  to  find  their  way  through  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty  miles  of  a  South  African 
wilderness,  through  an  utterly  unfamiliar,  un- 
friendly, and  sparsely  settled  country  into  Por- 
tuguese territory  and  the  coast,  they  left  to 
chance.  But  with  luck  they  hoped  to  cover  the 
distance  in  a  fortnight,  begging  corn  at  the 
Kaffir  kraals,  sleeping  by  day  and  marching 
under  cover  of  the  darkness. 

They  agreed  to  make  the  attempt  on  the 
nth  of  December,  but  on  that  night  the  sen- 
tries did  not  move  from  the  only  part  of  the 
wall  that  was  in  shadow.  On  the  night  fol- 
lowing, at  the  last  moment,  something  de- 

99 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

layed  Churchill's  companion,  and  he  essayed 
the  adventure  alone.  He  writes :  "  Tuesday, 
the  1 2th!  Anything  was  better  than  further 
suspense.  Again  night  came.  Again  the  din- 
ner bell  sounded.  Choosing  my  opportunity, 
I  strolled  across  the  quadrangle  and  secreted 
myself  in  one  of  the  offices.  Through  a  chink 
I  watched  the  sentries.  For  half  an  hour  they 
remained  stolid  and  obstructive.  Then  sud- 
denly one  turned  and  walked  up  to  his  com- 
rade and  they  began  to  talk.  Their  backs 
were  turned.  I  darted  out  of  my  hiding-place 
and  ran  to  the  wall,  seized  the  top  with  my 
hands  and  drew  myself  up.  Twice  I  let  my- 
self down  again  in  sickly  hesitation,  and  then 
with  a  third  resolve  scrambled  up.  The  top 
was  flat.  Lying  on  it,  I  had  one  parting 
glimpse  of  the  sentries,  still  talking,  still  with 
their  backs  turned,  but,  I  repeat,  still  fifteen 
yards  away.  Then  I  lowered  myself  into  the 
adjoining  garden  and  crouched  among  the 
shrubs.  I  was  free.  The  first  step  had  been 
taken,  and  it  was  irrevocable." 

Churchill  discovered  that  the  house  into  the 
garden  of  which  he  had  so  unceremoniously 
introduced  himself  was  brilliantly  lighted,  and 

100 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

that  the  owner  was  giving  a  party.  At  one 
time  two  of  the  guests  walked  into  the  garden 
and  stood,  smoking  and  chatting,  in  the  path 
within  a  few  yards  of  him. 

Thinking  his  companion  might  yet  join 
him,  for  an  hour  he  crouched  in  the  bushes, 
until  from  the  other  side  of  the  wall  he  heard 
the  voices  of  his  friend  and  of  another  officer. 

"  It's  all  up ! "  his  friend  whispered. 
Churchill  coughed  tentatively.  The  two 
voices  drew  nearer.  To  confuse  the  sentries, 
should  they  be  listening,  the  one  officer  talked 
nonsense,  laughed  loudly,  and  quoted  Latin 
phrases,  while  the  other,  in  a  low  and  distinct 
voice,  said :  "  I  cannot  get  out.  The  sentry 
suspects.  It's  all  up.  Can  you  get  back 
again  ?  " 

To  go  back  was  impossible.  Churchill  now 
felt  that  in  any  case  he  was  sure  to  be  recap- 
tured and  decided  he  would,  as  he  expresses 
it,  at  least  have  a  run  for  his  money. 

"  I  shall  go  on  alone/'  he  whispered. 

He  heard  the  footsteps  of  his  two  friends 
move  away  from  him  across  the  play-yard. 
At  the  same  moment  he  stepped  boldly  out 
into  the  garden,  and  passing  the  open  windows 


101 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

of  the  house,  walked  down  the  gravel  path  to 
the  street.  Not  five  yards  from  the  gate  stood 
a  sentry.  Most  of  those  guarding  the  school- 
house  knew  him  by  sight,  but  Churchill  did 
not  turn  his  head,  and  whether  the  sentry  rec- 
ognized him  or  not,  he  could  not  tell. 

For  a  hundred  feet  he  walked  as  though  on 
ice,  inwardly  shrinking  as  he  waited  for  the 
sharp  challenge,  and  the  rattle  of  the  Mauser 
thrown  to  the  "  Ready."  His  nerves  were 
leaping,  his  heart  in  his  throat,  his  spine  of 
water.  And  then,  as  he  continued  to  advance, 
and  still  no  tumult  pursued  him,  he  quickened 
his  pace  and  turned  into  one  of  the  main  streets 
of  Pretoria.  The  sidewalks  were  crowded 
with  burghers,  but  no  one  noticed  him.  This 
was  due  probably  to  the  fact  that  the  Boers 
wore  no  distinctive  uniform,  and  that  with 
them  in  their  commandoes  were  many  Eng- 
lish Colonials  who  wore  khaki  riding-breeches, 
and  many  Americans,  French,  Germans,  and 
Russians,  in  every  fashion  of  semi-uniform. 

If  observed,  Churchill  was  mistaken  for  one 
of  these,  and  the  very  openness  of  his  move- 
ments saved  him  from  suspicion. 

Straight  through  the  town  he  walked  until 


102 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

he  reached  the  suburbs,  the  open  veldt,  and  a 
railroad  track.  As  he  had  no  map  or  com- 
pass he  knew  this  must  be  his  only  guide,  but 
he  knew  also  that  two  railroads  left  Pretoria, 
the  one  along  which  he  had  been  captured,  to 
Pietermaritzburg,  and  the  other,  the  one  lead- 
ing to  the  coast  and  freedom.  Which  of  the 
two  this  one  was  he  had  no  idea,  but  he  took  his 
chance,  and  a  hundred  yards  beyond  a  station 
waited  for  the  first  outgoing  train.  About 
midnight,  a  freight  stopped  at  the  station,  and 
after  it  had  left  it  and  before  it  had  again 
gathered  headway,  Churchill  swung  himself 
up  upon  it,  and  stretched  out  upon  a  pile  of 
coal.  Throughout  the  night  the  train  contin- 
ued steadily  toward  the  east,  and  so  told  him 
that  it  was  the  one  he  wanted,  and  that  he  was 
on  his  way  to  the  neutral  territory  of  Portugal. 
Fearing  the  daylight,  just  before  the  sun 
rose,  as  the  train  was  pulling  up  a  steep  grade, 
he  leaped  off  into  some  bushes.  All  that  day 
he  lay  hidden,  and  the  next  night  he  walked. 
He  made  but  little  headway.  As  all  stations 
and  bridges  were  guarded,  he  had  to  make 
long  detours,  and  the  tropical  moonlight  pre- 
vented him  from  crossing  in  the  open.  In  this 

103 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

way,  sleeping  by  day,  walking  by  night,  beg- 
ging food  from  the  Kaffirs,  five  days  passed. 

Meanwhile,  his  absence  had  been  at  once 
discovered,  and,  by  the  Boers,  every  effort 
was  being  made  to  retake  him.  Telegrams 
giving  his  description  were  sent  along  both 
railways,  three  thousand  photographs  of  him 
were  distributed,  each  car  of  every  train  was 
searched,  and  in  different  parts  of  the  Trans- 
vaal men  who  resembled  him  were  being  ar- 
rested. It  was  said  he  had  escaped  dressed 
as  a  woman;  in  the  uniform  of  a  Transvaal 
policeman  whom  he  had  bribed;  that  he  had 
never  left  Pretoria,  and  that  in  the  disguise 
of  a  waiter  he  was  concealed  in  the  house  of 
a  British  sympathizer.  On  the  strength  of 
this  rumor  the  houses  of  all  suspected  persons 
were  searched. 

In  the  Volksstem  it  was  pointed  out  as  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  a  week  before  his  escape 
Churchill  had  drawn  from  the  library  Mill's 
"  Essay  on  Liberty/' 

In  England  and  over  all  British  South 
Africa  the  escape  created  as  much  interest  as 
it  did  in  Pretoria.  Because  the  attempt  showed 
pluck,  and  because  he  had  outwitted  the 

104 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

enemy,  Churchill  for  the  time  became  a  sort 
of  popular  hero,  and  to  his  countrymen  his 
escape  gave  as  much  pleasure  as  it  was  a  cause 
of  chagrin  to  the  Boers. 

But  as  days  passed  and  nothing  was  heard 
of  him,  it  was  feared  he  had  lost  himself  in  the 
Machadodorp  Mountains,  or  had  succumbed 
to  starvation,  or,  in  the  jungle  toward  the 
coast,  to  fever,  and  congratulations  gave  way 
to  anxiety. 

The  anxiety  was  justified,  for  at  this  time 
Churchill  was  in  a  very  bad  way.  During  the 
month  in  prison  he  had  obtained  but  little  ex- 
ercise. The  lack  of  food  and  of  water,  the  cold 
by  night  and  the  terrific  heat  by  day,  the 
long  stumbling  marches  in  the  darkness,  the 
mental  effect  upon  an  extremely  nervous,  high- 
strung  organization  of  being  hunted,  and  of 
having  to  hide  from  his  fellow  men,  had  worn 
him  down  to  a  condition  almost  of  collapse. 

Even  though  it  were  neutral  soil,  in  so  ex- 
hausted a  state  he  dared  not  venture  into  the 
swamps  and  waste  places  of  the  Portuguese 
territory;  and,  sick  at  heart  as  well  as  sick  in 
body,  he  saw  no  choice  left  him  save  to  give 
himself  up. 

105 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

But  before  doing  so  he  carefully  prepared 
a  tale  which,  although  most  improbable,  he 
hoped  might  still  conceal  his  identity  and  aid 
him  to  escape  by  train  across  the  border. 

One  night  after  days  of  wandering  he  found 
himself  on  the  outskirts  of  a  little  village  near 
the  boundary  line  of  the  Transvaal  and  Portu- 
guese territory.  Utterly  unable  to  proceed 
further,  he  crawled  to  the  nearest  zinc-roofed 
shack,  and,  fully  prepared  to  surrender, 
knocked  at  the  door.  It  was  opened  by  a 
rough-looking,  bearded  giant,  the  first  white 
man  to  whom  in  many  days  Churchill  had 
dared  address  himself. 

To  him,  without  hope,  he  feebly  stammered 
forth  the  speech  he  had  rehearsed.  The  man 
listened  with  every  outward  mark  of  disbelief. 
At  Churchill  himself  he  stared  with  open  sus- 
picion. Suddenly  he  seized  the  boy  by  the 
shoulder,  drew  him  inside  the  hut,  and  barred 
the  door. 

"You  needn't  lie  to  me,"  he  said.  "You 
are  Winston  Churchill,  and  I — am  the  only 
Englishman  in  this  village." 

The  rest  of  the  adventure  was  comparatively 
easy.  The  next  night  his  friend  in  need,  an 

106 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

engineer  named  Howard,  smuggled  Churchill 
into  a  freight-car,  and  hid  him  under  sacks 
of  some  soft  merchandise. 

At  Komatie-Poort,  the  station  on  the  border, 
for  eighteen  hours  the  car  in  which  Churchill 
lay  concealed  was  left  in  the  sun  on  a  siding, 
and  before  it  again  started  it  was  searched,  but 
the  man  who  was  conducting  the  search  lifted 
only  the  top  layer  of  sacks,  and  a  few  minutes 
later  Churchill  heard  the  hollow  roar  of  the 
car  as  it  passed  over  the  bridge,  and  knew  that 
he  was  across  the  border. 

Even  then  he  took  no  chances,  and  for 
two  days  more  lay  hidden  at  the  bottom  of 
the  car. 

When  at  last  he  arrived  in  Lorenzo  Mar- 
ques he  at  once  sought  out  the  English  Consul, 
who,  after  first  mistaking  him  for  a  stoker 
from  one  of  the  ships  in  the  harbor,  gave  him 
a  drink,  a  bath,  and  a  dinner. 

As  good  luck  would  have  it,  the  Induna  was 
leaving  that  night  for  Durban,  and,  escorted 
by  a  bodyguard  of  English  residents  armed 
with  revolvers,  and  who  were  taking  no 
chances  of  his  recapture  by  the  Boer  agents, 

he  was  placed  safely  on  board.    Two  days  later 

107 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

he  arrived  at  Durban,  where  he  was  received 
by  the  Mayor,  the  populace,  and  a  brass  band 
playing :  "  Britons  Never,  Never,  Never  shall 
be  Slaves!" 

For  the  next  month  Churchill  was  bom- 
barded by  letters  and  telegrams  from  every 
part  of  the  globe;  some  invited  him  to  com- 
mand filibustering  expeditions,  others  sent  him 
woollen  comforters,  some  forwarded  photo- 
graphs of  himself  to  be  signed,  others  photo- 
graphs of  themselves,  possibly  to  be  admired, 
others  sent  poems,  and  some  bottles  of 
whiskey. 

One  admirer  wrote :  "  My  congratulations 
on  your  wonderful  and  glorious  deeds,  which 
will  send  such  a  thrill  of  pride  and  enthusiasm 
through  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
of  America,  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  will 
be  irresistible/' 

Lest  so  large  an  order  as  making  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  irresistible  might  turn  the  head  of 
a  subaltern,  an  antiseptic  cablegram  was  also 
sent  him,  from  London,  reading : 

"  Best  friends  here  hope  you  won't  go  making  fur- 
ther ass  of  yourself.  McNEiLL." 

zo8 


0 


WINSTON    SPENCER    CHURCHILL 

One  day  in  camp  we  counted  up  the  price 
per  word  of  this  cablegram,  and  Churchill 
was  delighted  to  find  that  it  must  have  cost  the 
man  who  sent  it  five  pounds. 

On  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  Durban,  with 
the  cheers  still  in  the  air,  Churchill  took  the 
first  train  to  "  the  front,"  then  at  Colenso. 
Another  man  might  have  lingered.  After  a 
month's  imprisonment  and  the  hardships  of 
the  escape,  he  might  have  been  excused  for 
delaying  twenty-four  hours  to  taste  the  sweets 
of  popularity  and  the  flesh-pots  of  the  Queen 
Hotel.  But  if  the  reader  has  followed  this 
brief  biography  he  will  know  that  to  have  done 
so  would  have  been  out  of  the  part.  This 
characteristic  of  Churchill's  to  get  on  to  the 
next  thing  explains  his  success.  He  has  no 
time  to  waste  on  post  mortems,  he  takes  none 
to  rest  on  his  laurels. 

As  a  war  correspondent  and  officer  he  con- 
tinued with  Buller  until  the  relief  of  Lady- 
smith,  and  with  Roberts  until  the  fall  of  Pre- 
toria. He  was  in  many  actions,  in  all  the  big 
engagements,  and  came  out  of  the  war  with 
another  medal  and  clasps  for  six  battles. 

On  his  return  to  London  he  spent  the  sum- 
109 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

mer  finishing  his  second  book  on  the  war,  and 
in  October  at  the  general  election  as  a 
"  khaki "  candidate,  as  those  were  called  who 
favored  the  war,  again  stood  for  Oldham. 
This  time,  with  his  war  record  to  help  him,  he 
wrested  from  the  Liberals  one  of  Oldham's 
two  seats.  He  had  been  defeated  by  thirteen 
hundred  votes;  he  was  elected  by  a  majority 
of  two  hundred  and  twenty-seven. 

The  few  months  that  intervened  between 
his  election  and  the  opening  of  the  new  Par- 
liament were  snatched  by  Churchill  for  a  lect- 
uring tour  at  home,  and  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada.  His  subject  was  the  war  and 
his  escape  from  Pretoria. 

When  he  came  to  this  country  half  of  the 
people  here  were  in  sympathy  with  the  Boers, 
and  did  not  care  to  listen  to  what  they  sup- 
posed would  be  a  strictly  British  version  of 
the  war.  His  manager,  without  asking  per- 
mission of  those  whose  names  he  advertised, 
organized  for  Churchill's  first  appearance  in 
various  cities,  different  reception  committees. 

Some  of  those  whose  names,  without  their 
consent,  were  used  for  these  committees,  wrote 
indignantly  to  the  papers,  saying  that  while 


no 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

for  Churchill,  personally,  they  held  every  re- 
spect, they  objected  to  being  used  to  advertise 
an  anti-Boer  demonstration. 

While  this  was  no  fault  of  Churchill's,  who, 
until  he  reached  this  country  knew  nothing  of 
it,  it  was  neither  for  him  nor  for  the  success 
of  his  tour  the  best  kind  of  advance  work. 

During  the  fighting  to  relieve  Ladysmith, 
with  General  Buller's  force,  Churchill  and  I 
had  again  been  together,  and  later  when  I 
joined  the  Boer  army,  at  the  Zand  River  Bat- 
tle, the  army  with  which  he  was  a  correspond- 
ent had  chased  the  army  with  which  I  was 
a  correspondent,  forty  miles.  I  had  been  one 
of  those  who  refused  to  act  on  his  reception 
committee,  and  he  had  come  to  this  country 
with  a  commission  from  twenty  brother  offi- 
cers to  shoot  me  on  sight.  But  in  his  lecture 
he  was  using  the  photographs  I  had  taken  of 
the  scene  of  his  escape,  and  which  I  had  sent 
him  from  Pretoria  as  a  souvenir,  and  when 
he  arrived  I  was  at  the  hotel  to  welcome  him, 
and  that  same  evening,  three  hours  after  mid- 
night he  came,  in  a  blizzard,  pounding  at  our 
door  for  food  and  drink.  What  is  a  little  thing 
like  a  war  between  friends  ? 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

During  his  "  tour,"  except  of  hotels,  parlor- 
cars,  and  "  Lyceums/'  he  saw  very  little  of 
this  country  or  of  its  people,  and  they  saw  very 
little  of  him.  On  the  trip,  which  lasted  about 
two  months,  he  cleared  ten  thousand  dollars. 
This,  to  a  young  man  almost  entirely  depend- 
ent for  an  income  upon  his  newspaper  work 
and  the  sale  of  his  books,  nearly  repaid  him 
for  the  two  months  of  "  one  night  stands."  On 
his  return  to  London  he  took  his  seat  in  the 
new  Parliament. 

It  was  a  coincidence  that  he  entered  Parlia- 
ment at  the  same  age  as  did  his  father.  With 
two  other  members,  one  born  six  days  earlier 
than  himself,  he  enjoyed  the  distinction  of 
being  among  the  three  youngest  members  of 
the  new  House. 

The  fact  did  not  seem  to  appall  him.  In  the 
House  it  is  a  tradition  that  young  and  ambi- 
tious members  sit  "  below  "  the  gangway;  the 
more  modest  and  less  assured  are  content  to 
place  themselves  "  above  "  it,  at  a  point  far- 
thest removed  from  the  leaders. 

On  the  day  he  was  sworn  in  there  was  much 
curiosity  to  see  where  Churchill  would  elect 
to  sit.  In  his  own  mind  there  was  apparently 


112 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

no  doubt.  After  he  had  taken  the  oath,  signed 
his  name,  and  shaken  the  hand  of  the  Speaker, 
without  hesitation  he  seated  himself  on  the 
bench  next  to  the  Ministry.  Ten  minutes 
later,  so  a  newspaper  of  the  day  describes  it, 
he  had  cocked  his  hat  over  his  eyes,  shoved 
his  hands  into  his  trousers  pockets,  and  was 
lolling  back  eying  the  veterans  of  the  House 
with  critical  disapproval. 

His  maiden  speech  was  delivered  in  May, 
1901,  in  reply  to  David  Lloyd  George,  who 
had  attacked  the  conduct  of  British  soldiers 
in  South  Africa.  Churchill  defended  them, 
and  in  a  manner  that  from  all  sides  gained 
him  honest  admiration.  In  the  course  of  the 
debate  he  produced  and  read  a  strangely 
apropos  letter  which,  fifteen  years  before, 
had  been  written  by  his  father  to  Lord  Salis- 
bury. His  adroit  use  of  this  filled  H.  W. 
Massingham,  the  editor  of  the  Daily  News, 
with  enthusiasm.  Nothing  in  parliamentary 
tactics,  he  declared,  since  Mr.  Gladstone  died, 
had  been  so  clever.  He  proclaimed  that 
Churchill  would  be  Premier.  John  Dillon,  the 
Nationalist  leader,  said  he  never  before  had 
seen  a  young  man,  by  means  of  his  maiden 

"3 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

effort,  spring  into  the  front  rank  of  parlia- 
mentary speakers.  He  promised  that  the  Irish 
members  would  ungrudgingly  testify  to  his 
ability  and  honesty  of  purpose.  Among  others 
to  at  once  recognize  the  rising  star  was  T.  P. 
O'Connor,  himself  for  many  years  of  the  par- 
liamentary firmament  one  of  the  brightest  stars. 
In  M.  A.  P.  he  wrote:  "  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  the  dash  of  American  blood  which  he  has 
from  his  mother  has  been  an  improvement 
on  the  original  stock,  and  that  Mr.  Winston 
Churchill  may  turn  out  to  be  a  stronger  and 
abler  politician  than  his  father." 

It  was  all  a  part  of  Churchill's  "  luck  "  that 
when  he  entered  Parliament  the  subject  in 
debate  was  the  conduct  of  the  war. 

Even  in  those  first  days  of  his  career  in  the 
House,  in  debates  where  angels  feared  to 
tread,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  rush  in,  but  this 
subject  was  one  on  which  he  spoke  with  knowl- 
edge. Over  the  older  men  who  were  forced 
to  quote  from  hearsay  or  from  what  they  had 
read,  Churchill  had  the  tremendous  advantage 
of  being  able  to  protest :  "  You  only  read  of 
that.  I  was  there.  I  saw  it." 

In  the  House  he  became  at  once  one  of  the 
114 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

conspicuous  and  picturesque  figures,  one  dear 
to  the  heart  of  the  caricaturist,  and  one  from 
the  stranger's  gallery  most  frequently  pointed 
out.  He  was  called  "  the  spoiled  child  of  the 
House/'  and  there  were  several  distinguished 
gentlemen  who  regretted  they  were  forced  to 
spare  the  rod.  Broderick,  the  Secretary  for 
War,  was  one  of  these.  Of  him  and  of  his  re- 
cruits in  South  Africa,  Churchill  spoke  with 
the  awful  frankness  of  the  enfant  terrible. 
And  although  he  addressed  them  more  with 
sorrow  than  with  anger,  to  Balfour  and  Cham- 
berlain he  daily  administered  advice  and  re- 
proof, while  mere  generals  and  field-marshals, 
like  Kitchener  and  Roberts,  blushing  under 
new  titles,  were  held  up  for  public  reproof 
and  briefly  but  severely  chastened.  Nor,  when 
he  saw  Lord  Salisbury  going  astray,  did  he 
hesitate  in  his  duty  to  the  country,  but  took 
the  Prime  Minister  by  the  hand  and  gently 
instructed  him  in  the  way  he  should  go. 

This  did  not  tend  to  make  him  popular,  but 
in  spite  of  his  unpopularity,  in  his  speeches 
against  national  extravagancies  he  made  so 
good  a  fight  that  he  forced  the  Government, 
unwillingly,  to  appoint  a  committee  to  inves- 

"5 


REAL   SOLDIERS    OF   FORTUNE 

tigate  the  need  of  economy.  For  a  beginner 
this  was  a  distinct  triumph. 

With  Lord  Hugh  Cecil,  Lord  Percy,  Ian 
Malcolm,  and  other  clever  young  men,  he 
formed  inside  the  Conservative  Party  a  little 
group  that  in  its  obstructive  and  independent 
methods  was  not  unlike  the  Fourth  Party  of 
his  father.  From  its  leader  and  its  filibuster- 
ing, guerilla-like  tactics  the  men  who  com- 
posed it  were  nicknamed  the  "  Hughligans." 
The  Hughligans  were  the  most  active  critics 
of  the  Ministry  and  of  all  in  their  own  party, 
and  as  members  of  the  Free  Food  League 
they  bitterly  attacked  the  fiscal  proposals 
of  Mr.  Chamberlain.  When  Balfour  made 
Chamberlain's  fight  for  fair  trade,  or  for  what 
virtually  was  protection,  a  measure  of  the  Con- 
servatives, the  lines  of  party  began  to  break, 
and  men  were  no  longer  Conservatives  or 
Liberals,  but  Protectionists  or  Free  Traders. 

Against  this  Churchill  daily  protested, 
against  Chamberlain,  against  his  plan,  against 
that  plan  being  adopted  by  the  Tory  Party. 
By  tradition,  by  inheritance,  by  instinct, 
Churchill  was  a  Tory. 

"  I  am  a  Tory,"  he  said,  "  and  I  have  as 

116 


WINSTON    SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

much  right  in  the  party  as  has  anybody  else, 
certainly  as  much  as  certain  people  from  Bir- 
mingham. They  can't  turn  us  out,  and  we, 
the  Tory  Free  Traders,  have  as  much  right 
to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  Conservative  Party 
as  have  any  reactionary  Fair  Traders."  In 
1904  the  Conservative  Party  already  recog- 
nized Churchill  as  one  working  outside  the 
breastworks.  Just  before  the  Easter  vacation 
of  that  year,  when  he  rose  to  speak  a  remark- 
able demonstration  was  made  against  him  by 
his  Unionist  colleagues,  all  of  them  rising  and 
leaving  the  House. 

To  the  Liberals  who  remained  to  hear  him 
he  stated  that  if  to  his  constituents  his  opin- 
ions were  obnoxious,  he  was  ready  to  resign 
his  seat.  It  then  was  evident  he  would  go 
over  to  the  Liberal  Party.  Some  thought  he 
foresaw  which  way  the  tidal  wave  was  com- 
ing, and  to  being  slapped  down  on  the  beach 
and  buried  in  the  sand,  he  preferred  to  be  swept 
forward  on  its  crest.  Others  believed  he  left 
the  Conservatives  because  he  could  not  hon- 
estly stomach  the  taxed  food  offered  by  Mr. 
Chamberlain. 

In  any  event,  if  he  were  to  be  blamed  for 
117 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

changing  from  one  party  to  the  other,  he  was 
only  following  the  distinguished  example  set 
him  by  Gladstone,  Disraeli,  Harcourt,  and  his 
own  father. 

It  was  at  the  time  of  this  change  that  he  was 
called  "  the  best  hated  man  in  England,"  but 
the  Liberals  welcomed  him  gladly,  and  the 
National  Liberal  Club  paid  him  the  rare  com- 
pliment of  giving  in  his  honor  a  banquet. 
There  were  present  two  hundred  members. 
Up  to  that  time  this  dinner  was  the  most 
marked  testimony  to  his  importance  in  the 
political  world.  It  was  about  then,  a  year 
since,  that  he  prophesied :  "  Within  nine  months 
there  will  come  such  a  tide  and  deluge  as  will 
sweep  through  England  and  Scotland,  and 
completely  wash  out  and  effect  a  much-needed 
spring  cleaning  in  Downing  Street." 

When  the  deluge  came,  at  Manchester,  Mr. 
Balfour  was  defeated,  and  Churchill  was  vic- 
torious, and  when  the  new  Government  was 
formed  the  tidal  wave  landed  Churchill  in  the 
office  of  Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies. 

While  this  is  being  written  the  English  pa- 
pers say  that  within  a  month  he  again  will  be 
promoted.  For  this  young  man  of  thirty  the 

118 


Winston  Leonard  Spencer  Churchill. 

British  Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies. 


WINSTON   SPENCER   CHURCHILL 

only  promotion  remaining  is  a  position  in  the 
Cabinet,  in  which  august  body  men  of  fifty  are 
considered  young. 

His  is  a  picturesque  career.  Of  any  man 
of  his  few  years  speaking  our  language,  his 
career  is  probably  the  most  picturesque.  And 
that  he  is  half  an  American  gives  all  of  us  an 
excuse  to  pretend  we  share  in  his  successes. 


119 


IV 

CAPTAIN   PHILO   NORTON    McGIFFIN 

IN  the  Chinese-Japanese  War  the  battle  of 
the  Yalu  was  the  first  battle  fought  be- 
tween warships  of  modern  make,  and,  except 
on  paper,  neither  the  men  who  made  them  nor 
the  men  who  fought  them  knew  what  the 
ships  could  do,  or  what  they  might  not  do. 
For  years  every  naval  power  had  been  build- 
ing these  new  engines  of  war,  and  in  the  battle 
which  was  to  test  them  the  whole  world  was 
interested.  But  in  this  battle  Americans  had 
a  special  interest,  a  human,  family  interest, 
for  the  reason  that  one  of  the  Chinese  squad- 
ron, which  was  matched  against  some  of  the 
same  vessels  of  Japan  which  lately  swept  those 
of  Russia  from  the  sea,  was  commanded  by 
a  young  graduate  of  the  American  Naval 
Academy.  This  young  man,  who,  at  the  time 
of  the  battle  of  the  Yalu,  was  thirty-three 
years  old,  was  Captain  Philo  Norton  McGif- 

120 


CAPTAIN    PHILO    N.    McGIFFIN 

fin.  So  it  appears  that  five  years  before  our 
fleet  sailed  to  victory  in  Manila  Bay  another 
graduate  of  Annapolis,  and  one  twenty  years 
younger  than  in  1898  was  Admiral  Dewey, 
had  commanded  in  action  a  modern  battle- 
ship, which,  in  tonnage,  in  armament,  and  in 
the  number  of  the  ships'  company,  far  out- 
classed Dewey's  Olympia. 

McGiffin,  who  was  born  on  December  13, 
1860,  came  of  fighting  stock.  Back  in  Scot- 
land the  family  is  descended  from  the  Clan 
MacGregor  and  the  Clan  MacAlpine. 

"  These  are  Clan- Alpine's  warriors  true, 
And,  Saxon — I  am  Roderick  Dhu." 

McGiffin  Js  great-grandfather,  born  in  Scot- 
land, emigrated  to  this  country  and  settled  in 
"Little  Washington/'  near  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
In  the  Revolutionary  War  he  was  a  soldier. 
Other  relatives  fought  in  the  War  of  1812, 
one  of  them  holding  a  commission  as  major. 
McGiffin's  own  father  was  Colonel  Norton 
McGiffin,  who  served  in  the  Mexican  War, 
and  in  the  Civil  War  was  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  the  Eighty-fifth  Pennsylvania  Volunteers. 
So  McGiffin  inherited  his  love  for  arms. 


121 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

In  Washington  he  went  to  the  high  school 
and  at  the  Washington  Jefferson  College  had 
passed  through  his  freshman  year.  But  the 
honors  that  might  accrue  to  him  if  he  contin- 
ued to  live  on  in  the  quiet  and  pretty  old  town 
of  Washington  did  not  tempt  him.  To  escape 
into  the  world  he  wrote  his  Congressman,  beg- 
ging him  to  obtain  for  him  an  appointment  to 
Annapolis.  The  Congressman  liked  the  letter, 
and  wrote  Colonel  McGiffin  to  ask  if  the  appli- 
cation of  his  son  had  his  approval.  Colonel 
McGiffin  was  willing,  and  in  1877  his  son 
received  his  commission  as  cadet  midshipman. 
I  knew  McGiffin  only  as  a  boy  with  whom 
in  vacation  time  I  went  coon  hunting  in 
the  woods  outside  of  Washington.  For  his 
age  he  was  a  very  tall  boy,  and  in  his  mid- 
shipman undress  uniform,  to  my  youthful 
eyes,  appeared  a  most  bold  and  adventurous 
spirit. 

At  Annapolis  his  record  seems  to  show  he 
was  pretty  much  like  other  boys.  According 
to  his  classmates,  with  all  of  whom  I  find  he 
was  very  popular,  he  stood  high  in  the  prac- 
tical studies,  such  as  seamanship,  gunnery, 
navigation,  and  steam  engineering,  but  in  all 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

else  he  was  near  the  foot  of  the  class,  and  in 
whatever  escapade  was  risky  and  reckless  he 
was  always  one  of  the  leaders.  To  him  dis- 
cipline was  extremely  irksome.  He  could 
maintain  it  among  others,  but  when  it  applied 
to  himself  it  bored  him.  On  the  floor  of  the 
Academy  building  on  which  was  his  room 
there  was  a  pyramid  of  cannon  balls — relics 
of  the  War  of  1812.  They  stood  at  the  head 
of  the  stairs,  and  one  warm  night,  when  he 
could  not  sleep,  he  decided  that  no  one  else 
should  do  so,  and,  one  by  one,  rolled  the  cannon 
balls  down  the  stairs.  They  tore  away  the 
banisters  and  bumped  through  the  wooden 
steps  and  leaped  off  into  the  lower  halls.  For 
any  one  who  might  think  of  ascending  to  dis- 
cover the  motive  power  back  of  the  bombard- 
ment they  were  extremely  dangerous.  But  an 
officer  approached  McGiffin  in  the  rear,  and, 
having  been  caught  in  the  act,  he  was  sent  to 
the  prison  ship.  There  he  made  good  friends 
with  his  jailer,  an  old  man-of-warsman  named 
"  Mike."  He  will  be  remembered  by  many 
naval  officers  who  as  midshipmen  served  on 
the  Santee.  McGiffin  so  won  over  Mike  that 
when  he  left  the  ship  he  carried  with  him  six 

123 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

charges  of  gunpowder.  These  he  loaded  into 
the  six  big  guns  captured  in  the  Mexican 
War,  which  lay  on  the  grass  in  the  centre  of 
the  Academy  grounds,  and  at  midnight  on  the 
eve  of  July  ist  he  fired  a  salute.  It  aroused 
the  entire  garrison,  and  for  a  week  the  empty 
window  frames  kept  the  glaziers  busy. 

About  1878  or  1879  there  was  a  famine  in 
Ireland.  The  people  of  New  York  City  con- 
tributed provisions  for  the  sufferers,  and  to 
carry  the  supplies  to  Ireland  the  Government 
authorized  the  use  of  the  old  Constellation. 
At  the  time  the  voyage  was  to  begin  each 
cadet  was  instructed  to  consider  himself  as 
having  been  placed  in  command  of  the  Con- 
stellation and  to  write  a  report  on  the  prepa- 
rations made  for  the  voyage,  on  the  loading  of 
the  vessel,  and  on  the  distribution  of  the  stores. 
This  exercise  was  intended  for  the  instruction 
of  the  cadets;  first  in  the  matter  of  seaman- 
ship and  navigation,  and  second  in  making 
official  reports.  At  that  time  it  was  a  very 
difficult  operation  to  get  a  gun  but  of  the  port 
of  a  vessel  where  the  gun  was  on  a  covered 
deck.  To  do  this  the  necessary  tackles  had  to 
be  rigged  from  the  yard-arm  and  the  yard  and 

124 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

mast  properly  braced  and  stayed,  and  then  the 
lower  block  of  the  tackle  carried  in  through 
the  gun  port,  which,  of  course,  gave  the  fall 
a  very  bad  reeve.  The  first  part  of  McGiffin's 
report  dealt  with  a  new  method  of  dismount- 
ing the  guns  and  carrying  them  through  the 
gun  ports,  and  so  admirable  was  his  plan,  so 
simple  and  ingenious,  that  it  was  used  when- 
ever it  became  necessary  to  dismount  a  gun 
from  one  of  the  old  sailing  ships.  Having, 
however,  offered  this  piece  of  good  work, 
McGiffin's  report  proceeded  to  tell  of  the  divi- 
sion of  the  ship  into  compartments  that  were 
filled  with  a  miscellaneous  assortment  of  stores, 
which  included  the  old  "fifteen  puzzles,"  at 
that  particular  time  very  popular.  The  report 
terminated  with  a  description  of  the  joy  of  the 
famished  Irish  as  they  received  the  puzzle- 
boxes.  At  another  time  the  cadets  were  re- 
quired to  write  a  report  telling  of  the  sup- 
pression of  the  insurrection  on  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama.  McGiffin  won  great  praise  for 
the  military  arrangements  and  disposition  of 
his  men,  but,  in  the  same  report,  he  went  on 
to  describe  how  he  armed  them  with  a  new 
gun  known  as  Barnes's  Rhetoric  and  told  of 

"5 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

the  havoc  he  wrought  in  the  enemy's  ranks 
when  he  fired  these  guns  loaded  with  similes 
and  metaphors  and  hyperboles. 

Of  course,  after  each  exhibition  of  this  sort 
he  was  sent  to  the  Santee  and  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  meditate. 

On  another  occasion,  when  one  of  the  in- 
structors lectured  to  the  cadets,  he  required 
them  to  submit  a  written  statement  embodying 
all  that  they  could  recall  of  what  had  been  said 
at  the  lecture.  One  of  the  rules  concerning 
this  report  provided  that  there  should  be  no 
erasures  or  interlineations,  but  that  when  mis- 
takes were  made  the  objectionable  or  incor- 
rect expressions  should  be  included  within 
parentheses;  and  that  the  matter  so  enclosed 
within  parentheses  would  not  be  considered 
a  part  of  the  report.  McGiffin  wrote  an  ex- 
cellent resume  of  the  lecture,  but  he  inter- 
spersed through  it  in  parentheses  such  words 
as  "  applause/'  "  cheers,"  "  cat-calls/'  and 
"  groans,"  and  as  these  words  were  enclosed 
within  parentheses  he  insisted  that  they  did 
not  count,  and  made  a  very  fair  plea  that 
he  ought  not  to  be  punished  for  words  which 

slipped  in  by  mistake,  and  which  he  had  offi- 

126 


CAPTAIN    PHILO    N.    McGIFFIN 

daily  obliterated  by  what  he  called  oblivion 
marks. 

He  was  not  always  on  mischief  bent.  On 
one  occasion,  when  the  house  of  a  professor 
caught  fire,  McGiffin  ran  into  the  flames  and 
carried  out  two  children,  for  which  act  he  was 
commended  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

It  was  an  act  of  Congress  that  determined 
that  the  career  of  McGiffin  should  be  that  of 
a  soldier  of  fortune.  This  was  a  most  unjust 
act,  which  provided  that  only  as  many  mid- 
shipmen should  receive  commissions  as  on  the 
warships  there  were  actual  vacancies.  In 
those  days,  in  1884,  our  navy  was  very  small. 
To-day  there  is  hardly  a  ship  having  her  full 
complement  of  officers,  and  the  difficulty  is  not 
to  get  rid  of  those  we  have  educated,  but  to 
get  officers  to  educate.  To  the  many  boys 
who,  on  the  promise  that  they  would  be  officers 
of  the  navy,  had  worked  for  four  years  at  the 
Academy  and  served  two  years  at  sea,  the  act 
was  most  unfair.  Out  of  a  class  of  about 
ninety,  only  the  first  twelve  were  given  com- 
missions and  the  remaining  eighty  turned 
adrift  upon  the  uncertain  seas  of  civil  life.  As 

a  sop,  each  was  given  one  thousand  dollars. 

127 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

McGiffin  was  not  one  of  the  chosen  twelve. 
In  the  final  examinations  on  the  list  he  was 
well  toward  the  tail.  But  without  having  stud- 
ied many  things,  and  without  remembering  the 
greater  part  of  them,  no  one  graduates  from 
Annapolis,  even  last  on  the  list;  and  with  his 
one  thousand  dollars  in  cash,  McGiffin  had  also 
this  six  years  of  education  at  what  was  then 
the  best  naval  college  in  the  world.  This 
was  his  only  asset — his  education — and  as 
in  his  own  country  it  was  impossible  to  dis- 
pose of  it,  for  possible  purchasers  he  looked 
abroad. 

At  that  time  the  Tong  King  war  was  on  be- 
tween France  and  China,  and  he  decided,  be- 
fore it  grew  rusty,  to  offer  his  knowledge  to 
the  followers  of  the  Yellow  Dragon.  In  those 
days  that  was  a  hazard  of  new  fortunes  that 
meant  much  more  than  it  does  now.  To-day 
the  East  is  as  near  as  San  Francisco ;  the  Jap- 
anese-Russian War,  our  occupation  of  the 
Philippines,  the  part  played  by  our  troops  in 
the  Boxer  trouble,  have  made  the  affairs  of 
China  part  of  the  daily  reading  of  every  one. 
Now,  one  can  step  into  a  t  ass  bed  at  Forty- 
second  Street  and  in  four  days  at  the  Coast 

128 


Captain  McQiffjn  on  Graduation  from  the  Naval 
Academy  at  twenty-three. 


CAPTAIN    PHILO    N.    McGIFFIN 

get  into  another  brass  bed,  and  in  twelve  more 
be  spinning  down  the  Bund  of  Yokohama  in  a 
rickshaw.  People  go  to  Japan  for  the  winter 
months  as  they  used  to  go  to  Cairo. 

But  in  1885  it  was  no  such  light  undertak- 
ing, certainly  not  for  a  young  man  who  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  quiet  atmosphere  of 
an  inland  town,  where  generations  of  his  fam- 
ily and  other  families  had  lived  and  intermar- 
ried, content  with  their  surroundings. 

With  very  few  of  his  thousand  dollars  left 
him,  McGiffin  arrived  in  February,  1885,  m 
San  Francisco.  From  there  his  letters  to  his 
family  give  one  the  picture  of  a  healthy,  warm- 
hearted youth,  chiefly  anxious  lest  his  mother 
and  sister  should  "worry."  In  our  country 
nearly  every  family  knows  that  domestic  trag- 
edy when  the  son  and  heir  "  breaks  home  ties," 
and  starts  out  to  earn  a  living;  and  if  all  the 
world  loves  a  lover,  it  at  least  sympathizes  with 
the  boy  who  is  "  looking  for  a  job."  The  boy 
who  is  looking  for  the  job  may  not  think  so,  but 
each  of  those  who  has  passed  through  the 
same  hard  place  gives  him,  if  nothing  else,  his 
good  wishes.  McGiffin's  letters  at  this  period 

gain  for  him  from  those  who  have  had  the 

129 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

privilege  to  read  them  the  warmest  good 
feeling. 

They  are  filled  with  the  same  cheery  opti- 
mism, the  same  slurring  over  of  his  troubles, 
the  same  homely  jokes,  the  same  assurances 
that  he  is  feeling  "  bully,"  and  that  it  all  will 
come  out  right,  that  every  boy,  when  he  starts 
out  in  the  world,  sends  back  to  his  mother. 

"  I  am  in  first-rate  health  and  spirits,  so  I 
don't  want  you  to  fuss  about  me.  I  am  big 
enough  and  ugly  enough  to  scratch  along 
somehow,  and  I  will  not  starve." 

To  his  mother  he  proudly  sends  his  name 
written  in  Chinese  characters,  as  he  had  been 
taught  to  write  it  by  the  Chinese  Consul- 
General  in  San  Francisco,  and  a  pen-picture 
of  two  elephants.  "  I  am  going  to  bring  you 
home  two  of  these,"  he  writes,  not  knowing 
that  in  the  strange  and  wonderful  country  to 
which  he  is  going  elephants  are  as  infrequent 
as  they  are  in  Pittsburg. 

He  reached  China  in  April,  and  from  Naga- 
saki on  his  way  to  Shanghai  the  steamer  that 
carried  him  was  chased  by  two  French  gun- 
boats. But,  apparently  much  to  his  disap- 
pointment, she  soon  ran  out  of  range  of  their 

130 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

guns.  Though  he  did  not  know  it  then,  with 
the  enemy  he  had  travelled  so  far  to  fight  this 
was  his  first  and  last  hostile  meeting;  for 
already  peace  was  in  the  air. 

Of  that  and  of  how,  in  spite  of  peace,  he 
obtained  the  "  job  "  he  wanted,  he  must  tell 
you  himself  in  a  letter  home: 

"TiEN-TsiN,  CHINA,  April  13,  1885. 

"  MY  DEAR  MOTHER — I  have  not  felt  much  in  the 
humor  for  writing,  for  I  did  not  know  what  was 
going  to  happen.  I  spent  a  good  deal  of  money  com- 
ing out,  and  when  I  got  here,  I  knew,  unless  some- 
thing turned  up,  I  was  a  gone  coon.  We  got  off  Taku 
forts  Sunday  evening  and  the  next  morning  we  went 
inside;  the  channel  is  very  narrow  and  sown  with 
torpedoes.  We  struck  one — an  electric  one — in  com- 
ing up,  but  it  didn't  go  off.  We  were  until  10.30  P.M. 
in  coming  up  to  Tien-Tsin — thirty  miles  in  a  straight 
line,  but  nearly  seventy  by  the  river,  which  is  only 
about  one  hundred  feet  wide — and  we  grounded  ten 
times. 

"  Well — at  last  we  moored  and  went  ashore.  Brace 
Girdle,  an  engineer,  and  I  went  to  the  hotel,  and  the 
first  thing  we  heard  was — that  peace  was  declared  \ 
I  went  back  on  board  ship,  and  I  didn't  sleep  much — 
I  never  was  so  blue  in  my  life.  I  knew  if  they  didn't 
want  me  that  I  might  as  well  give  up  the  ghost,  for  I 
could  never  get  away  from  China.  Well — I  worried 
around  all  night  without  sleep,  and  in  the  morning  I 
felt  as  if  I  had  been  drawn  through  a  knot-hole.  I 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

must  have  lost  ten  pounds.  I  went  around  about  10 
A.M.  and  gave  my  letters  to  Pethick,  an  American  U.  S. 
Vice-Consul  and  interpreter  to  Li  Hung  Chang.  He 
said  he  would  fix  them  for  me.  Then  I  went  back  to 
the  ship,  and  as  our  captain  was  going  up  to  see 
Li  Hung  Chang,  I  went  along  out  of  desperation.  We 
got  in,  and  after  a  while  were  taken  in  through  cor- 
ridor after  corridor  of  the  Viceroy's  palace  until  we 
got  in  to  the  great  Li,  when  we  sat  down  and  had 
tea  and  tobacco  and  talked  through  an  interpreter. 
When  it  came  my  turn  he  asked :  '  Why  did  you  come 
to  China  ?  '  I  said :  '  To  enter  the  Chinese  service  for 
the  war/  '  How  do  you  expect  to  enter  ? '  'I  expect 
you  to  give  me  a  commission ! '  'I  have  no  place  to 
offer  you/  '  I  think  you  have — I  have  come  all  the 
way  from  America  to  get  it.'  '  What  would  you  like? ' 
1 1  would  like  to  get  the  new  torpedo-boat  and  go 
down  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  to  the  blockading  squad- 
ron/ '  Will  you  do  that?  '  '  Of  course/ 

"  He  thought  a  little  and  said :  '  I  will  see  what  can 
be  done.  Will  you  take  $100  a  month  for  a  start?' 
I  said: '  That  depends/  (Of  course  I  would  take  it.) 
Well,  after  parley,  he  said  he  would  put  me  on  the 
flagship,  and  if  I  did  well  he  would  promote  me.  Then 
he  looked  at  me  and  said :  '  How  old  are  you  ?  '  When 
I  told  him  I  was  twenty- four  I  thought  he  would  faint 
— for  in  China  a  man  is  a  boy  until  he  is  over  thirty. 
He  said  I  would  never  do — I  was  a  child.  I  could 
not  know  anything  at  all.  I  could  not  convince  him, 
but  at  last  he  compromised — I  was  to  pass  an  exami- 
nation at  the  Arsenal  at  the  Naval  College,  in  all 
branches,  and  if  they  passed  me  I  would  have  a  show. 
So  we  parted.  I  reported  for  examination  next  day, 

132 


CAPTAIN    PHILO    N.    McGIFFIN 

but  was  put  off — same  the  next  day.  But  to-day  I 
was  told  to  come,  and  sat  down  to  a  stock  of  foolscap, 
and  had  a  pretty  stiff  exam.  I  am  only  just  through. 
I  had  seamanship,  gunnery,  navigation,  nautical  as- 
tronomy, algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry,  conic  sec- 
tions, curve  tracing,  differential  and  integral  calculus. 
I  had  only  three  questions  out  of  five  to  answer  in 
each  branch,  but  in  the  first  three  I  answered  all  five. 
After  that  I  only  had  time  for  three,  but  at  the  end  he 
said  I  need  not  finish,  he  was  perfectly  satisfied.  I 
had  done  remarkably  well,  and  he  would  report  to  the 
Viceroy  to-morrow.  He  examined  my  first  papers — 
seamanship — said  I  was  perfect  in  it,  so  I  will  get 
along,  you  need  not  fear.  I  told  the  Consul — he  was 
very  well  pleased — he  is  a  nice  man. 

"  I  feel  pretty  well  now — have  had  dinner  and  am 
smoking  a  good  Manila  cheroot.  I  wrote  hard  all 
day,  wrote  fifteen  sheets  of  foolscap  and  made  about 
a  dozen  drawings — got  pretty  tired. 

"  I  have  had  a  hard  scramble  for  the  service  and 
only  got  in  by  the  skin  of  my  teeth.  I  guess  I  will  go 
to  bed — I  will  sleep  well  to-night — Thursday. 

"  I  did  not  hear  from  the  Naval  Secretary,  Tuesday, 
so  yesterday  morning  I  went  up  to  the  Admiralty  and 
sent  in  my  card.  He  came  out  and  received  me  very 
well — said  I  had  passed  a  'very  splendid  examina- 
tion ' ;  had  been  recommended  very  strongly  to  the 
Viceroy,  who  was  very  much  pleased ;  that  the  Direc- 
tor of  the  Naval  College  over  at  the  Arsenal  had 
wanted  me  and  would  I  go  over  at  once?  I  would. 
It  was  about  five  miles.  We  (a  friend,  who  is  a  great 
rider  here)  went  on  steeplechase  ponies — we  were  fer- 
ried across  the  Pei  Ho  in  a  small  scow  and  then  had 

133 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

a  long  ride.  There  is  a  path — but  Pritchard  insisted 
on  taking  all  the  ditches,  and  as  my  pony  jumped  like 
a  cat,  it  wasn't  nice  at  first,  but  I  didn't  squeal  and 
kept  my  seat  and  got  the  swing  of  it  at  last  and  rather 
liked  it.  I  think  I  will  keep  a  horse  here — you  can 
hire  one  and  a  servant  together  for  $7  a  month;  that 
is  $5.60  of  our  money,  and  pony  and  man  found  in 
everything. 

"  Well — at  last  we  got  to  the  Arsenal — a  place 
about  four  miles  around,  fortified,  where  all  sorts  of 
arms — cartridges,  shot  and  shell,  engines,  and  every- 
thing— are  made.  The  Naval  College  is  inside,  sur- 
rounded by  a  moat  and  wall.  I  thought  to  myself,  if 
the  cadet  here  is  like  to  the  thing  I  used  to  be  at  the 
U.  S.  N.  A.  that  won't  keep  him  in.  I  went  through 
a  lot  of  yards  till  I  was  ushered  into  a  room  finished 
in  black  ebony  and  was  greeted  very  warmly  by  the 
Director.  We  took  seats  on  a  raised  platform — 
Chinese  style — and  pretty  soon  an  interpreter  came, 
one  of  the  Chinese  professors,  who  was  educated 
abroad,  and  we  talked  and  drank  tea.  He  said  I  had 
done  well,  that  he  had  the  authority  of  the  Viceroy  to 
take  me  there  as  '  Professor '  of  seamanship  and  gun- 
nery; in  addition  I  might  be  required  to  teach  navi- 
gation or  nautical  astronomy,  or  drill  the  cadets  in 
infantry,  artillery,  and  fencing.  For  this  I  was  to 
receive  what  would  be  in  our  money  $1,800  per  annum, 
as  near  as  we  can  compare  it,  paid  in  gold  each  month. 
Besides,  I  will  have  a  house  furnished  for  my  use,  and 
it  is  their  intention,  as  soon  as  I  show  that  I  know 
something,  to  considerably  increase  my  pay.  They 
asked  the  Viceroy  to  give  me  130  T  per  month  (about 
$186)  and  house,  but  the  Viceroy  said  I  was  but  a 

'34 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

boy ;  that  I  had  seen  no  years  and  had  only  come  here 
a  week  ago  with  no  one  to  vouch  for  me,  and  that  I 
might  turn  out  an  impostor.  But  he  would  risk  100  T 
on  me  anyhow,  and  as  soon  as  I  was  reported  favor- 
ably on  by  the  college  I  would  be  raised — the  agree- 
ment is  to  be  for  three  years.  For  a  few  months  I  am 
to  command  a  training  ship — an  ironclad  that  is  in  dry 
dock  at  present,  until  a  captain  in  the  English  Navy 
comes  out,  who  has  been  sent  for  to  command  her. 

"  So  Here  I  Am — twenty- four  years  old  and  cap- 
tain of  a  man-of-war — a  better  one  than  any  in  our 
own  navy — only  for  a  short  time,  of  course,  but  I 
would  be  a  pretty  long  time  before  I  would  command 
one  at  home.  Well — I  accepted  and  will  enter  on  my 
duties  in  a  week,  as  soon  as  my  house  is  put  in  order. 
I  saw  it — it  has  a  long  veranda,  very  broad ;  with  flower 
garden,  apricot  trees,  etc.,  just  covered  with  blossoms ; 
a  wide  hall  on  the  front,  a  room  about  18  X  15,  with 
a  13-foot  ceiling;  then  back  another  rather  larger, 
with  a  cupola  skylight  in  the  centre,  where  I  am  going 
to  put  a  shelf  with  flowers.  The  Government  is  to 
furnish  the  house  with  bed,  tables,  chairs,  sideboards, 
lounges,  stove  for  kitchen.  I  have  grates  (Ameri- 
can) in  the  room,  but  I  don't  need  them.  We  have 
snow  and  a  good  deal  of  ice  in  winter,  but  the  ther- 
mometer never  gets  below  zero.  I  have  to  supply  my 
own  crockery.  I  will  have  two  servants  and  cook; 
I  will  only  get  one  and  the  cook  first — they  only  cost 
$4  to  $5.50  per  month,  and  their  board  amounts  to 
very  little.  I  can  get  along,  don't  you  think  so  ?  Now 
I  want  you  to  get  Jim  to  pack  up  all  my  professional 
works  on  gunnery,  surveying,  seamanship,  mathe- 
matics, astronomy,  algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry, 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

conic  sections,  calculus,  mechanics,  and  every  book  of 
that  description  I  own,  including  those  paper-bound 
'  Naval  Institute '  papers,  and  put  them  in  a  box,  to- 
gether with  any  photos,  etc.,  you  think  I  would  like — 
I  have  none  of  you  or  Pa  or  the  family  (including 
Carrie) — and  send  to  me. 

"  I  just  got  in  in  time — didn't  I  ?  Another  week 
would  have  been  too  late.  My  funds  were  getting 
low ;  I  would  not  have  had  anything  before  long.  The 
U.  S.  Consul,  General  Bromley,  is  much  pleased.  The 
interpreter  says  it  was  all  in  the  way  I  did  with  the 
Viceroy  in  the  interview. 

"  I  will  have  a  chance  to  go  to  Peking  and  later  to 
a  tiger  hunt  in  Mongolia,  but  for  the  present  I  am 
going  to  study,  work,  and  stroke  these  mandarins  till 
I  get  a  raise.  I  am  the  only  instructor  in  both  seaman- 
ship and  gunnery,  and  I  must  know  everything,  both 
practically  and  theoretically.  But  it  will  be  good  for 
me — and  the  only  thing  is,  that  if  I  were  put  back 
into  the  Navy  I  would  be  in  a  dilemma.  I  think  I 
will  get  my  '  influence '  to  work,  and  I  want  you  peo- 
ple at  home  to  look  out,  and  in  case  I  am — if  it  were 
represented  to  the  Sec.  that  my  position  here  was  giv- 
ing me  an  immense  lot  of  practical  knowledge  pro- 
fessionally— more  than  I  could  get  on  a  ship  at  sea — 
I  think  he  would  give  me  two  years'  leave  on  half  or 
quarter  pay.  Or,  I  would  be  willing  to  do  without 
pay — only  to  be  kept  on  the  register  in  my  rank. 

"  I  will  write  more  about  this.    Love  to  all." 

It  is  characteristic  of  McGiffin  that  in  the 
very  same  letter  in  which  he  announces  he 

136 


CAPTAIN   PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

has  entered  foreign  service  he  plans  to  return 
to  that  of  his  own  country.  This  hope  never 
left  him.  You  find  the  same  homesickness  for 
the  quarterdeck  of  an  American  man-of-war 
all  through  his  later  letters.  At  one  time  a 
bill  to  reinstate  the  midshipmen  who  had  been 
cheated  of  their  commissions  was  introduced 
into  Congress.  Of  this  McGiffin  writes  fre- 
quently as  "  our  bill."  "  It  may  pass,"  he 
writes,  "  but  I  am  tired  hoping.  I  have  hoped 
so  long.  And  if  it  should,"  he  adds  anxious- 
ly, "  there  may  be  a  time  limit  set  in  which 
a  man  must  rejoin,  or  lose  his  chance,  so  do 
not  fail  to  let  me  know  as  quickly  as  you  can." 
But  the  bill  did  not  pass,  and  McGiffin  never 
returned  to  the  navy  that  had  cut  him  adrift. 
He  settled  down  at  Tien-Tsin  and  taught  the 
young  cadets  how  to  shoot.  Almost  all  of 
those  who  in  the  Chinese-Japanese  War  served 
as  officers  were  his  pupils.  As  the  navy  grew, 
he  grew  with  it,  and  his  position  increased 
in  importance.  More  Mexican  dollars  per 
month,  more  servants,  larger  houses,  and  but- 
tons of  various  honorable  colors  were  given 
him,  and,  in  return,  he  established  for  China 
a  modern  naval  college  patterned  after  our 

137 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

own.  In  those  days  throughout  China  and 
Japan  you  could  find  many  of  these  foreign 
advisers.  Now,  in  Japan,  the  Hon.  W.  H. 
Dennison  of  the  Foreign  Office,  one  of  our 
own  people,  is  the  only  foreigner  with  whom 
the  Japanese  have  not  parted,  and  in  China 
there  are  none.  Of  all  of  those  who  have  gone 
none  served  his  employers  more  faithfully 
than  did  McGiifin.  At  a  time  when  every 
official  robbed  the  people  and  the  Government, 
and  when  "  squeeze  "  or  "  graft  "  was  recog- 
nized as  a  perquisite,  McGiffin's  hands  were 
clean.  The  shells  purchased  for  the  Govern- 
ment by  him  were  not  loaded  with  black  sand, 
nor  were  the  rifles  fitted  with  barrels  of  iron 
pipe.  Once  a  year  he  celebrated  the  Thanks- 
giving Day  of  his  own  country  by  inviting  to 
a  great  dinner  all  the  Chinese  naval  officers 
who  had  been  at  least  in  part  educated  in 
America.  It  was  a  great  occasion,  and  to 
enjoy  it  officers  used  to  come  from  as  far  as 
Port  Arthur,  Shanghai,  and  Hongkong.  So 
fully  did  some  of  them  appreciate  the  efforts 
of  their  host  that  previous  to  his  annual  din- 
ner, for  twenty-four  hours,  they  delicately 
starved  themselves. 

138 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

During  ten  years  McGiffin  served  as  naval 
constructor  and  professor  of  gunnery  and 
seamanship,  and  on  board  ships  at  sea  gave 
practical  demonstrations  in  the  handling  of 
the  new  cruisers.  In  1894  he  applied  for  leave, 
which  was  granted,  but  before  he  had  sailed 
for  home  war  with  Japan  was  declared  and 
he  withdrew  his  application.  He  was  placed 
as  second  in  command  on  board  the  Chen 
Yuen,  a  seven-thousand-ton  battleship,  a  sister 
ship  to  the  Ting  Yuen,  the  flagship  of  Admiral 
Ting  Ju  Chang.  On  the  memorable  I7th  of 
September,  1894,  the  battle  of  the  Yalu  was 
fought,  and  so  badly  were  the  Chinese  vessels 
hammered  that  the  Chinese  navy,  for  the  time 
being,  was  wiped  out  of  existence. 

From  the  start  the  advantage  was  with  the 
Japanese  fleet.  In  heavy  guns  the  Chinese 
were  the  better  armed,  but  in  quick-firing  guns 
the  Japanese  were  vastly  superior,  and  while 
the  Chinese  battleships  Ting  Yuen  and  Chen 
Yuen,  each  of  7,430  tons,  were  superior  to  any 
of  the  Japanese  warships,  the  three  largest  of 
which  were  each  of  4,277  tons,  the  gross  ton- 
nage of  the  Japanese  fleet  was  36,000  to  21,000 
of  the  Chinese.  During  the  progress  of  the 

139 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

battle  the  ships  engaged  on  each  side  num- 
bered an  even  dozen,  but  at  the  very  start, 
before  a  decisive  shot  was  fired  by  either  con- 
testant, the  Tsi  Yuen,  2,355  tons>  and  Kwan 
Chiae,  1,300  tons,  ran  away,  and  before  they 
had  time  to  get  into  the  game  the  Chao  Yung 
and  Yang  Wei  were  in  flames  and  had  fled  to 
the  nearest  land.  So  the  battle  was  fought 
by  eight  Chinese  ships  against  twelve  of  the 
Japanese.  Of  the  Chinese  vessels,  the  flagship 
commanded  by  Admiral  Ting  and  her  sister 
ship,  which  immediately  after  the  beginning 
of  the  fight  was  for  four  hours  commanded  by 
McGiffin,  were  the  two  chief  aggressors,  and 
in  consequence  received  the  fire  of  the  entire 
Japanese  squadron.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
fight,  which  without  interruption  lasted  for 
five  long  hours,  the  Japanese  did  not  even 
consider  the  four  smaller  ships  of  the  enemy, 
but,  sailing  around  the  two  ironclads  in  a  cir- 
cle, fired  only  at  them.  The  Japanese  them- 
selves testified  that  these  two  ships  never  lost 
their  formation,  and  that  when  her  sister 
ironclad  was  closely  pressed  the  Chen  Yuen, 
by  her  movements  and  gun  practice,  protected 

the  Ting  Yuen9  and,  in  fact,  while  she  could 

140 


McGiffin  as  Superintendent  of  the  Chinese  Naval  College, 
at  the  age  of  thirty-two. 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

not  prevent  the  heavy  loss  the  fleet  encoun- 
tered, preserved  it  from  annihilation.  During 
the  fight  this  ship  was  almost  continuously  on 
fire,  and  was  struck  by  every  kind  of  projec- 
tile, from  the  thirteen-inch  Canet  shells  to  a 
rifle  bullet,  four  hundred  times.  McGiffin 
himself  was  so  badly  wounded,  so  beaten 
about  by  concussions,  so  burned,  and  so  bruised 
by  steel  splinters,  that  his  health  and  eyesight 
were  forever  wrecked.  But  he  brought  the 
Chen  Yuen  safely  into  Port  Arthur  and  the 
remnants  of  the  fleet  with  her. 

On  account  of  his  lack  of  health  he  resigned 
from  the  Chinese  service  and  returned  to 
America.  For  two  years  he  lived  in  New 
York  City,  suffering  in  body  without  cessa- 
tion the  most  exquisite  torture.  During  that 
time  his  letters  to  his  family  show  only  tre- 
mendous courage.  On  the  splintered,  gaping 
deck  of  the  Chen  Yuen,  with  the  fires  below 
it,  and  the  shells  bursting  upon  it,  he  had 
shown  to  his  Chinese  crew  the  courage  of  the 
white  man  who  knew  he  was  responsible  for 
them  and  for  the  honor  of  their  country.  But 
far  greater  and  more  difficult  was  the  cour- 
age he  showed  while  alone  in  the  dark  sick- 

141 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

room,  and  in  the  private  wards  of  the  hos- 
pitals. 

In  the  letters  he  dictates  from  there  he  still 
is  concerned  only  lest  those  at  home  shall 
"  worry  " ;  he  reassures  them  with  falsehoods, 
jokes  at  their  fears;  of  the  people  he  can  see 
from  the  window  of  the  hospital  tells  them 
foolish  stories;  for  a  little  boy  who  has  been 
kind  he  asks  them  to  send  him  his  Chinese 
postage  stamps;  he  plans  a  trip  he  will  take 
with  them  when  he  is  stronger,  knowing  he 
never  will  be  stronger.  The  doctors  had 
urged  upon  him  a  certain  operation,  and  of  it 
to  a  friend  he  wrote :  "  I  know  that  I  will  have 
to  have  a  piece  about  three  inches  square  cut 
out  of  my  skull,  and  this  nerve  cut  off  near  the 
middle  of  the  brain,  as  well  as  my  eye  taken 
out  (for  a  couple  of  hours  only,  provided  it  is 

not  mislaid,  and  can  be  found).    Doctor 

and  his  crowd  show  a  bad  memory  for  fail- 
ures. As  a  result  of  this  operation  others 
have  told  me — I  forget  the  percentage  of 
deaths,  which  does  not  matter,  but — that  a 
large  percentage  have  become  insane.  And 
some  lost  their  sight/' 

While  threatened  with  insanity    and  com- 
142 


Commander  McGiffin  in  Hospital  After  the  Battle 
of  the  Yalu. 

Showing  damage  to  clothes  due  to  concussion. 


CAPTAIN    PHILO   N.    McGIFFIN 

plete  blindness,  and  hourly  from  his  wounds 
suffering  a  pain  drugs  could  not  master,  he 
dictated  for  the  Century  Magazine  the  only 
complete  account  of  the  battle  of  the  Yalu. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Richard  Watson  Gilder  he 
writes :  " .  .  .  my  eyes  are  troubling  me.  I 
cannot  see  even  what  I  am  writing  now,  and 
am  getting  the  article  under  difficulties.  I  yet 
hope  to  place  it  in  your  hands  by  the  2ist, 
still,  if  my  eyes  grow  worse " 

"  Still,  if  my  eyes  grow  worse " 

The  unfinished  sentence  was  grimly  pro- 
phetic. 

Unknown  to  his  attendants  at  the  hospital, 
among  the  papers  in  his  despatch-box  he  had 
secreted  his  service  revolver.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  nth  of  February,  1897,  he  asked 
for  this  box,  and  on  some  pretext  sent  the 
nurse  from  the  room.  When  the  report  of  the 
pistol  brought  them  running  to  his  bedside, 
they  found  the  pain-driven  body  at  peace,  and 
the  tired  eyes  dark  forever. 

In  the  article  in  the  Century  on  the  battle 
of  the  Yalu,  he  had  said : 

"  Chief  among  those  who  have  died  for  their 
country  is  Admiral  Ting  Ju  Chang,  a  gallant 

143 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

soldier  and  true  gentleman.  Betrayed  by  his 
countrymen,  fighting  against  odds,  almost  his 
last  official  act  was  to  stipulate  for  the  lives  of 
his  officers  and  men.  His  own  he  scorned  to 
save,  well  knowing  that  his  ungrateful  coun- 
try would  prove  less  merciful  than  his  honor- 
able foe.  Bitter,  indeed,  must  have  been  the 
reflections  of  the  old,  wounded  hero,  in  that 
midnight  hour,  as  he  drank  the  poisoned  cup 
that  was  to  give  him  rest." 

And  bitter  indeed  must  have  been  the  re- 
flections of  the  young  wounded  American, 
robbed,  by  the  parsimony  of  his  country,  of 
the  right  he  had  earned  to  serve  it,  and  who 
was  driven  out  to  give  his  best  years  and  his 
life  for  a  strange  people  under  a  strange  flag. 


144 


V 


WILLIAM    WALKER,    THE    KING   OF   THE 
FILIBUSTERS 

IT  is  safe  to  say  that  to  members  of  the 
younger  generation  the  name  of  William 
Walker  conveys  absolutely  nothing.  To 
them,  as  a  name,  "  William  Walker  "  awak- 
ens no  pride  of  race  or  country.  It  certainly 
does  not  suggest  poetry  and  adventure.  To 
obtain  a  place  in  even  this  group  of  Soldiers 
of  Fortune,  William  Walker,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  all  American  Soldiers  of  For- 
tune, the  one  who  but  for  his  own  country- 
men would  have  single-handed  attained  the 
most  far-reaching  results,  had  to  wait  his 
turn  behind  adventurers  of  other  lands  and 
boy  officers  of  his  own.  And  yet  had  this 
man  with  the  plain  name,  the  name  that  to- 
day means  nothing,  accomplished  what  he 
adventured,  he  would  on  this  continent  have 
solved  the  problem  of  slavery,  have  estab- 
lished an  empire  in  Mexico  and  in  Central 

145 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

America,  and,  incidentally,  have  brought  us 
into  war  with  all  of  Europe.  That  is  all  he 
would  have  accomplished. 

In  the  days  of  gold  in  San  Francisco  among 
the  "  Forty-niners  "  William  Walker  was  one 
of  the  most  famous,  most  picturesque  and  pop- 
ular figures.  Jack  Oakhurst,  gambler;  Colo- 
nel Starbottle,  duellist;  Yuba  Bill,  stage-coach 
driver,  were  his  contemporaries.  Bret  Harte 
was  one  of  his  keenest  admirers,  and  in  two 
of  his  stories,  thinly  disguised  under  a  more 
appealing  name,  Walker  is  the  hero.  When, 
later,  Walker  came  to  New  York  City,  in  his 
honor  Broadway  from  the  Battery  to  Madison 
Square  was  bedecked  with  flags  and  arches. 
"  It  was  roses,  roses  all  the  way."  The  house- 
tops rocked  and  swayed. 

In  New  Orleans,  where  in  a  box  at  the  opera 
he  made  his  first  appearance,  for  ten  minutes 
the  performance  came  to  a  pause,  while  the 
audience  stood  to  salute  him. 

This  happened  less  than  fifty  years  ago,  and 
there  are  men  who  as  boys  were  out  with 
"  Walker  of  Nicaragua,"  and  who  are  still 
active  in  the  public  life  of  San  Francisco  and 

New  York. 

146 


General   William   Walker. 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

Walker  was  born  in  1824,  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.  He  was  the  oldest  son  of  a  Scotch 
banker,  a  man  of  a  deeply  religious  mind,  and 
interested  in  a  business  which  certainly  is 
removed,  as  far  as  possible,  from  the  profes- 
sion of  arms.  Indeed,  few  men  better  than 
William  Walker  illustrate  the  fact  that  great 
generals  are  born,  not  trained.  Everything 
in  Walker's  birth,  family  tradition,  and  educa- 
tion pointed  to  his  becoming  a  member  of  one 
of  the  "learned"  professions.  It  was  the 
wish  of  his  father  that  he  should  be  a  min- 
ister of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  as  a 
child  he  was  trained  with  that  end  in  view. 
He  himself  preferred  to  study  medicine,  and 
after  graduating  at  the  University  of  Ten- 
nessee, at  Edinburgh  he  followed  a  course 
of  lectures,  and  for  two  years  travelled  in 
Europe,  visiting  many  of  the  great  hos- 
pitals. 

Then  having  thoroughly  equipped  himself 
to  practise  as  a  physician,  after  a  brief  return 
to  his  native  city,  and  as  short  a  stay  in  Phila- 
delphia, he  took  down  his  shingle  forever,  and 
proceeded  to  New  Orleans  to  study  law.  In 
two  years  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Lou- 

147 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

isiana.  But  because  clients  were  few,  or  be- 
cause the  red  tape  of  the  law  chafed  his  spirit, 
within  a  year,  as  already  he  had  abandoned 
the  Church  and  Medicine,  he  abandoned  his 
law  practice  and  became  an  editorial  writer 
on  the  New  Orleans  Crescent.  A  year  later 
the  restlessness  which  had  rebelled  against  the 
grave  professions  led  him  to  the  gold  fields 
of  California,  and  San  Francisco.  There,  in 
1852,  at  the  age  of  only  twenty-eight,  as  editor 
of  the  San  Francisco  Herald,  Walker  began 
his  real  life  which  so  soon  was  to  end  in  both 
disaster  and  glory. 

Up  to  his  twenty-eighth  year,  except  in  his 
restlessness,  nothing  in  his  life  foreshadowed 
what  was  to  follow.  Nothing  pointed  to  him 
as  a  man  for  whom  thousands  of  other  men, 
from  every  capital  of  the  world,  would  give 
up  their  lives. 

Negatively,  by  abandoning  three  separate 
callings,  and  in  making  it  plain  that  a  profes- 
sional career  did  not  appeal  to  him,  Walker 
had  thrown  a  certain  sidelight  on  his  charac- 
ter; but  actively  he  never  had  given  any  hint 
that  under  the  thoughtful  brow  of  the  young 

doctor  and  lawyer  there  was  a  mind  evolving 

148 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

schemes  of  empire,  and  an  ambition  limited 
only  by  the  two  great  oceans. 

Walker's  first  adventure  was  undoubtedly 
inspired  by  and  in  imitation  of  one  which  at 
the  time  of  his  arrival  in  San  Francisco  had 
just  been  brought  to  a  disastrous  end.  This 
was  the  De  Boulbon  expedition  into  Mexico. 
The  Count  Gaston  Raoulx  de  Raousset-Boul- 
bon  was  a  young  French  nobleman  and  Sol- 
dier of  Fortune,  a  chasseur  d'Afrique,  a 
duellist,  journalist,  dreamer,  who  came  to  Cali- 
fornia to  dig  gold.  Baron  Harden-Hickey, 
who  was  born  in  San  Francisco  a  few  years 
after  Boulbon  at  the  age  of  thirty  was  shot  in 
Mexico,  also  was  inspired  to  dreams  of  con- 
quest by  this  same  gentleman  adventurer. 

Boulbon  was  a  young  man  of  large  ideas. 
In  the  rapid  growth  of  California  he  saw  a 
threat  to  Mexico  and  proposed  to  that  govern- 
ment, as  a  "  buffer  "  state  between  the  two  re- 
publics, to  form  a  French  colony  in  the  Mex- 
ican state  of  Sonora.  Sonora  is  that  part  of 
Mexico  which  directly  joins  on  the  south  with 
our  State  of  Arizona.  The  President  of  Mex- 
ico gave  Boulbon  permission  to  attempt  this, 

and  in  1852  he  landed  at  Guaymas  in  the  Gulf 

149 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

of  California  with  two  hundred  and  sixty  well- 
armed  Frenchmen^  The  ostensible  excuse  of 
Boulbon  for  thus  invading  foreign  soil  was 
his  contract  with  the  President  under  which 
his  "  emigrants  "  were  hired  to  protect  other 
foreigners  working  in  the  "  Restauradora " 
mines  from  the  attacks  of  Apache  Indians 
from  our  own  Arizona.  But  there  is  evidence 
that  back  of  Boulbon  was  the  French  Govern- 
ment, and  that  he  was  attempting,  in  his  small 
way,  what  later  was  attempted  by  Maximilian, 
backed  by  a  French  army  corps  and  Louis 
Napoleon,  to  establish  in  Mexico  an  empire 
under  French  protection.  For  both  the  fili- 
buster and  the  emperor  the  end  was  the  same  ; 
to  be  shot  by  the  fusillade  against  a  church 
wall. 

In  1852,  two  years  before  Boulbon's  death, 
which  was  the  finale  to  his  second  filibustering 
expedition  into  Sonora,  he  wrote  to  a  friend 
in  Paris :  "  Europeans  are  disturbed  by  the 
growth  of  the  United  States.  And  rightly  so. 
Unless  she  be  dismembered;  unless  a  power- 
ful rival  be  built  up  beside  her  (i.  e.,  France 
in  Mexico),  America  will  become,  through 
her  commerce,  her  trade,  her  population,  her 

150 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

geographical  position  upon  two  oceans,  the 
inevitable  mistress  of  the  world.  In  ten  years 
Europe  dare  not  fire  a  shot  without  her  per- 
mission. As  I  write  fifty  Americans  prepare 
to  sail  for  Mexico  and  go  perhaps  to  victory. 
Voila  les  Etats-Unis." 

These  fifty  Americans  who,  in  the  eyes  of 
Boulbon,  threatened  the  peace  of  Europe,  were 
led  by  the  ex-doctor,  ex-lawyer,  ex-editor 
William  Walker,  aged  twenty-eight  years. 
Walker  had  attempted  but  had  failed  to  obtain 
from  the  Mexican  Government  such  a  con- 
tract as  the  one  it  had  granted  De  Boulbon. 
He  accordingly  sailed  without  it,  announcing 
that,  whether  the  Mexican  Government  asked 
him  to  do  so  or  not,  he  would  see  that  the 
women  and  children  on  the  border  of  Mexico 
and  Arizona  were  protected  from  massacre  by 
the  Indians.  It  will  be  remembered  that  when 
Dr.  Jameson  raided  the  Transvaal  he  also 
went  to  protect  "  women  and  children  "  from 
massacre  by  the  Boers.  Walker's  explanation 
of  his  expedition,  in  his  own  words,  is  as  fol- 
lows. He  writes  in  the  third  person :  "  What 
Walker  saw  and  heard  satisfied  him  that  a 
comparatively  small  body  of  Americans  might 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

gain  a  position  on  the  Sonora  frontier  and  pro- 
tect the  families  on  the  border  from  the  Indi- 
ans, and  such  an  act  would  be  one  of  human- 
ity whether  or  not  sanctioned  by  the  Mexican 
Government.  The  condition  of  the  upper  part 
of  Sonora  was  at  that  time,  and  still  is  [he  was 
writing  eight  years  later,  in  1860],  a  disgrace 
to  the  civilization  of  the  continent  .  .  .  and 
the  people  of  the  United  States  were  more 
immediately  responsible  before  the  world  for 
the  Apache  outrages.  Northern  Sonora  was, 
in  fact,  more  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Apaches  than  under  the  laws  of  Mexico,  and 
the  contributions  of  the  Indians  were  collected 
with  greater  regularity  and  certainty  than  the 
dues  of  the  tax-gatherers.  The  state  of  this 
region  furnished  the  best  defence  for  any 
American  aiming  to  settle  there  without  the 
formal  consent  of  Mexico;  and,  although  po- 
litical changes  would  certainly  have  followed 
the  establishment  of  a  colony,  they  might  be 
justified  by  the  plea  that  any  social  organiza- 
tion, no  matter  how  secured,  is  preferable  to 
that  in  which  individuals  and  families  are  alto- 
gether at  the  mercy  of  savages." 

While  at  the  time  of  Jameson's  raid  the 
152 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

women  and  children  in  danger  of  massacre 
from  the  Boers  were  as  many  as  there  are 
snakes  in  Ireland,  at  the  time  of  Walker's  raid 
the  women  and  children  were  in  danger  from 
the  Indians,  who  as  enemies,  as  Walker  soon 
discovered,  were  as  cruel  and  as  greatly  to  be 
feared  as  he  had  described  them. 

But  it  was  not  to  save  women  and  children 
that  Walker  sought  to  conquer  the  State  of 
Sonora.  At  the  time  of  his  expedition  the 
great  question  of  slavery  was  acute;  and  if 
in  the  States  next  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union 
slavery  was  to  be  prohibited,  the  time  had 
come,  so  it  seemed  to  this  statesman  of  twenty- 
eight  years,  when  the  South  must  extend  her 
boundaries,  and  for  her  slaves  find  an  outlet 
in  fresh  territory.  Sonora  already  joined  Ari- 
zona. By  conquest  her  territory  could  easily 
be  extended  to  meet  Texas.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  strategically  the  spot  selected  by  William 
Walker  for  the  purpose  for  which  he  desired 
it  was  almost  perfect.  Throughout  his  brief 
career  one  must  remember  that  the  spring  of 
all  his  acts  was  this  dream  of  an  empire  where 
slavery  would  be  recognized.  His  mother  was 
a  slave-holder.  In  Tennessee  he  had  been  born 

153 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

and  bred  surrounded  by  slaves.  His  youth  and 
manhood  had  been  spent  in  Nashville  and  New 
Orleans.  He  believed  as  honestly,  as  fanat- 
ically in  the  right  to  hold  slaves  as  did  his 
father  in  the  faith  of  the  Covenanters.  To-day 
one  reads  his  arguments  in  favor  of  slavery 
with  the  most  curious  interest.  His  appeals 
to  the  humanity  of  his  reader,  to  his  heart,  to 
his  sense  of  justice,  to  his  fear  of  God,  and  to 
his  belief  in  the  Holy  Bible  not  to  abolish 
slavery,  but  to  continue  it,  to  this  generation 
is  as  amusing  as  the  topsy-turvyisms  of  Gil- 
bert or  Shaw.  But  to  the  young  man  himself, 
slavery  was  a  sacred  institution,  intended  for 
the  betterment  of  mankind,  a  God-given  bene- 
fit to  the  black  man  and  a  God-given  right  of 
his  white  master. 

White  brothers  in  the  South,  with  perhaps 
less  exalted  motives,  contributed  funds  to  fit 
out  Walker's  expedition,  and  in  October,  1852, 
with  forty-five  men,  he  landed  at  Cape  St. 
Lucas,  at  the  extreme  point  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia. Lower  California,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, in  spite  of  its  name,  is  not  a  part  of  our 
California,  but  then  was,  and  still  is,  a  part  of 
Mexico.  The  fact  that  he  was  at  last  upon 

154 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

the  soil  of  the  enemy  caused  Walker  to  throw 
off  all  pretence;  and  instead  of  hastening  to 
protect  women  and  children,  he  sailed  a  few 
miles  farther  up  the  coast  to  La  Paz.  With 
his  forty-five  followers  he  raided  the  town, 
made  the  Governor  a  prisoner,  and  established 
a  republic  with  himself  as  President.  In  a 
proclamation  he  declared  the  people  free  of 
the  tyranny  of  Mexico.  They  had  no  desire 
to  be  free,  but  Walker  was  determined,  and, 
whether  they  liked  it  or  not,  they  woke  up  to 
find  themselves  an  independent  republic.  A 
few  weeks  later,  although  he  had  not  yet  set 
foot  there,  Walker  annexed  on  paper  the  State 
of  Sonora,  and  to  both  States  gave  the  name 
of  the  Republic  of  Sonora. 

As  soon  as  word  of  this  reached  San  Fran- 
cisco, his  friends  busied  themselves  in  his  be- 
half, and  the  danger-loving  and  adventurous 
of  all  lands  were  enlisted  as  "  emigrants  "  and 
shipped  to  him  in  the  bark  Anita. 

Two  months  later,  in  November,  1852,  three 
hundred  of  these  joined  Walker.  They  were 
as  desperate  a  band  of  scoundrels  as  ever 
robbed  a  sluice,  stoned  a  Chinaman,  or  shot  a 
"  Greaser."  When  they  found  that  to  com- 

155 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

mand  them  there  was  only  a  boy,  they  plotted 
to  blow  up  the  magazine  in  which  the  powder 
was  stored,  rob  the  camp,  and  march  north, 
supporting  themselves  by  looting  the  ranches. 
Walker  learned  of  their  plot,  tried  the  ring- 
leaders by  court-martial,  and  shot  them.  With 
a  force  as  absolutely  undisciplined  as  was  his, 
the  act  required  the  most  complete  personal 
courage.  That  was  a  quality  the  men  with 
him  could  fully  appreciate.  They  saw  they 
had  as  a  leader  one  who  could  fight,  and  one 
who  would  punish.  The  majority  did  not  want 
a  leader  who  would  punish;  so  when  Walker 
called  upon  those  who  would  follow  him  to 
Sonora  to  show  their  hands,  only  the  original 
forty-five  and  about  forty  of  the  later  recruits 
remained  with  him.  With  less  than  one  hun- 
dred men  he  started  to  march  up  the  Penin- 
sula through  Lower  California,  and  so  around 
the  Gulf  to  Sonora. 

From  the  very  start  the  filibusters  were 
overwhelmed  with  disaster.  The  Mexicans, 
with  Indian  allies,  skulked  on  the  flanks  and 
rear.  Men  who  in  the  almost  daily  encounters 
were  killed  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians, 
and  their  bodies  were  mutilated.  Stragglers 

156 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

and  deserters  were  run  to  earth  and  tortured. 
Those  of  the  filibusters  who  were  wounded 
died  from  lack  of  medical  care.  The  only  in- 
struments they  possessed  with  which  to  extract 
the  arrow-heads  were  probes  made  from  ram- 
rods filed  to  a  point.  Their  only  food  was  the 
cattle  they  killed  on  the  march.  The  army 
was  barefoot,  the  Cabinet  in  rags,  the  Presi- 
dent of  Sonora  wore  one  boot  and  one  shoe. 
Unable  to  proceed  farther,  Walker  fell  back 
upon  San  Vincente,  where  he  had  left  the  arms 
and  ammunition  of  the  deserters  and  a  rear- 
guard of  eighteen  men.  He  found  not  one 
of  these  to  welcome  him.  A  dozen  had  de- 
serted, and  the  Mexicans  had  surprised  the 
rest,  lassoing  them  and  torturing  them  until 
they  died.  Walker  now  had  but  thirty-five  men. 
To  wait  for  further  reinforcements  from  San 
Francisco,  even  were  he  sure  that  reenforce- 
ments  would  come,  was  impossible.  He  deter- 
mined by  forced  marches  to  fight  his  way  to 
the  boundary  line  of  California.  Between  him 
and  safety  were  the  Mexican  soldiers  holding 
the  passes,  and  the  Indians  hiding  on  his 
flanks.  When  within  three  miles  of  the  boun- 
dary line,  at  San  Diego,  Colonel  Melendrez, 

157 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

who  commanded  the  Mexican  forces,  sent  in 
a  flag  of  truce,  and  offered,  if  they  would  sur- 
render, a  safe  conduct  to  all  of  the  survivors 
of  the  expedition  except  the  chief.  But  the 
men  who  for  one  year  had  fought  and  starved 
for  Walker,  would  not,  within  three  miles  of 
home,  abandon  him. 

Melendrez  then  begged  the  commander  of 
the  United  States  troops  to  order  Walker  to 
surrender.  Major  McKinstry,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  United  States  Army  Post  at 
San  Diego,  refused.  For  him  to  cross  the  line 
would  be  a  violation  of  neutral  territory.  On 
Mexican  soil  he  would  neither  embarrass  the 
ex-President  of  Sonora  nor  aid  him;  but  he 
saw  to  it  that  if  the  filibusters  reached  Ameri- 
can soil,  no  Mexican  or  Indian  should  follow 
them. 

Accordingly,  on  the  imaginary  boundary  he 
drew  up  his  troop,  and  like  an  impartial  um- 
pire awaited  the  result.  Hidden  behind  rocks 
and  cactus,  across  the  hot,  glaring  plain,  the 
filibusters  could  see  the  American  flag,  and  the 
gay,  fluttering  guidons  of  the  cavalry.  The 
sight  gave  them  heart  for  one  last  desperate 
spurt.  Melendrez  also  appreciated  that  for  the 

158 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

final  attack  the  moment  had  come.  As  he 
charged,  Walker,  apparently  routed,  fled,  but 
concealed  in  the  rocks  behind  him  he  had  sta- 
tioned a  rear-guard  of  a  dozen  men.  As 
Melendrez  rode  into  this  ambush  the  dozen 
riflemen  emptied  as  many  saddles,  and  the 
Mexicans  and  Indians  stampeded.  A  half 
hour  later,  footsore  and  famished,  the  little 
band  that  had  set  forth  to  found  an  empire  of 
slaves,  staggered  across  the  line  and  surren- 
dered to  the  forces  of  the  United  States. 

Of  this  expedition  James  Jeffrey  Roche  says, 
in  his  "  Byways  of  War,"  which  is  of  all  books 
published  about  Walker  the  most  intensely 
and  fascinatingly  interesting  and  complete: 
"  Years  afterward  the  peon  herdsman  or 
prowling  Cocupa  Indian  in  the  mountain  by- 
paths stumbled  over  the  bleaching  skeleton  of 
some  nameless  one  whose  resting-place  was 
marked  by  no  cross  or  cairn,  but  the  Colts 
revolver  resting  beside  his  bones  spoke  his 
country  and  his  occupation — the  only  relic  of 
the  would-be  Conquistadores  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century." 

Under  parole  to  report  to  General  Wood, 
commanding  the  Department  of  the  Pacific, 

159 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

the  filibusters  were  sent  by  sailing  vessel  to 
San  Francisco,  where  their  leader  was  tried 
for  violating  the  neutrality  laws  of  the  United 
States,  and  acquitted. 

Walker's  first  expedition  had  ended  in  fail- 
ure, but  for  him  it  had  been  an  opportunity  of 
tremendous  experience,  as  active  service  is 
the  best  of  all  military  academies,  and  for  the 
kind  of  warfare  he  was  to  wage,  the  best  prep- 
aration. Nor  was  it  inglorious,  for  his  fellow 
survivors,  contrary  to  the  usual  practice,  in- 
stead of  in  barrooms  placing  the  blame  for 
failure  upon  their  leader,  stood  ready  to  fight 
one  and  all  who  doubted  his  ability  or  his  cour- 
age. Later,  after  five  years,  many  of  these 
same  men,  though  ten  to  twenty  years  his 
senior,  followed  him  to  death,  and  never 
questioned  his  judgment  nor  his  right  to 
command. 

At  this  time  in  Nicaragua  there  was  the 
usual  revolution.  On  the  south  the  sister  re- 
public of  Costa  Rica  was  taking  sides,  on  the 
north  Honduras  was  landing  arms  and  men. 
There  was  no  law,  no  government.  A  dozen 
political  parties,  a  dozen  commanding  gener- 
als, and  not  one  strong  man. 

1 60 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

In  the  editorial  rooms  of  the  San  Francisco 
Herald,  Walker,  searching  the  map  for  new 
worlds  to  conquer,  rested  his  finger  upon  Nica- 
ragua. 

In  its  confusion  of  authority  he  saw  an  op- 
portunity to  make  himself  a  power,  and  in  its 
tropical  wealth  and  beauty,  in  the  laziness  and 
incompetence  of  its  inhabitants,  he  beheld  a 
greater,  fairer,  more  kind  Sonora.  On  the 
Pacific  side  from  San  Francisco  he  could  re- 
enforce  his  army  with  men  and  arms;  on  the 
Caribbean  side  from  New  Orleans  he  could, 
when  the  moment  arrived,  people  his  empire 
with  slaves. 

The  two  parties  at  war  in  Nicaragua  were 
the  Legitimists  and  the  Democrats.  Why  they 
were  at  war  it  is  not  necessary  to  know. 
Probably  Walker  did  not  know ;  it  is  not  likely 
that  they  themselves  knew.  But  from  the 
leader  of  the  Democrats  Walker  obtained  a 
contract  to  bring  to  Nicaragua  three  hundred 
Americans,  who  were  each  to  receive  several 
hundred  acres  of  land,  and  who  were  described 
as  "  colonists  liable  to  military  duty."  This 
contract  Walker  submitted  to  the  Attorney- 
General  of  the  State  and  to  General  Wood, 

161 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

who  once  before  had  acquitted  him  of  filibus- 
tering; and  neither  of  these  Federal  officers 
saw  anything  which  seemed  to  give  them  the 
right  to  interfere.  But  the  rest  of  San  Fran- 
cisco was  less  credulous,  and  the  "  colonists  " 
who  joined  Walker  had  a  very  distinct  idea 
that  they  were  not  going  to  Nicaragua  to  plant 
coffee  or  to  pick  bananas. 

In  May,  1855,  Just  a  vear  after  Walker  and 
his  thirty-three  followers  had  surrendered  ta 
the  United  States  troops  at  San  Diego,  with 
fifty  new  recruits  and  seven  veterans  of  the  for- 
mer expedition  he  sailed  from  San  Francisco 
in  the  brig  Vesta,  and  in  five  weeks,  after  a 
weary  and  stormy  voyage,  landed  at  Realejo. 
There  he  was  met  by  representatives  of  the 
Provisional  Director  of  the  Democrats,  who 
received  the  Californians  warmly. 

Walker  was  commissioned  a  colonel,  Achil- 
les Kewen,  who  had  been  fighting  under 
Lopez  in  Cuba,  a  lieutenant-colonel,  and  Tim- 
othy Crocker,  who  had  served  under  Walker 
in  the  Sonora  expedition,  a  major.  The  corps 
was  organized  as  an  independent  command 
and  was  named  "La  Falange  Americana." 

At  this  time  the  enemy  held  the  route  to  the 

162 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

Caribbean,  and  Walker's  first  orders  were  to 
dislodge  him. 

Accordingly,  a  week  after  landing  with  his 
fifty-seven  Americans  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty  native  troops,  Walker  sailed  in  the  Vesta 
for  Brito,  from  which  port  he  marched  upon 
Rivas,  a  city  of  eleven  thousand  people  and 
.garrisoned  by  some  twelve  hundred  of  the 
enemy. 

The  first  fight  ended  in  a  complete  and  dis- 
astrous fiasco.  The  native  troops  ran  away, 
and  the  Americans  surrounded  by  six  hundred 
of  the  Legitimists'  soldiers,  after  defending 
themselves  for  three  hours  behind  some  adobe 
huts,  charged  the  enemy  and  escaped  into  the 
jungle.  Their  loss  was  heavy,  and  among  the 
killed  were  the  two  men  upon  whom  Walker 
chiefly  depended:  Kewen  and  Crocker.  The 
Legitimists  placed  the  bodies  of  the  dead  and 
wounded  who  were  still  living  on  a  pile  of  logs 
and  burned  them.  After  a  painful  night 
march,  Walker,  the  next  day,  reached  San 
Juan  on  the  coast,  and,  finding  a  Costa  Rican 
schooner  in  port,  seized  it  for  his  use.  At  this 
moment,  although  Walker's  men  were  de- 
feated, bleeding,  and  in  open  flight,  two  "  grin- 

163 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

gos  "  picked  up  on  the  beach  of  San  Juan,  "  the 
Texan  Harry  McLeod  and  the  Irishman  Peter 
Burns,"  asked  to  be  permitted  to  join  him. 

"  It  was  encouraging,"  Walker  writes,  "  for 
the  soldiers  to  find  that  some  besides  them- 
selves did  not  regard  their  fortunes  as  alto- 
gether desperate,  and  small  as  was  this  addi- 
tion to  their  number  it  gave  increased  moral 
as  well  as  material  strength  to  the  command." 

Sometimes  in  reading  history  it  would  ap- 
pear as  though  for  success  the  first  requisite 
must  be  an  utter  lack  of  humor,  and  inability 
to  look  upon  what  one  is  attempting  except 
with  absolute  seriousness.  With  forty  men 
Walker  was  planning  to  conquer  and  rule 
Nicaragua,  a  country  with  a  population  of 
250,000  souls  and  as  large  as  the  combined 
area  of  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  Rhode  Isl- 
and, New  Hampshire,  and  Connecticut.  And 
yet,  even  seven  years  later,  he  records  without 
a  smile  that  two  beach-combers  gave  his  army 
"moral  and  material  strength."  And  it  is 
most  characteristic  of  the  man  that  at  the 
moment  he  was  rejoicing  over  this  addition  to 
his  forces,  to  maintain  discipline  two  Amer- 
icans who  had  set  fire  to  the  houses  of  the 

164 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

enemy  he  ordered  to  be  shot.  A  weaker 
man  would  have  repudiated  the  two  Ameri- 
cans, who,  in  fact,  were  not  members  of  the 
Phalanx,  and  trusted  that  their  crimes  would 
not  be  charged  against  him.  But  the  success 
of  Walker  lay  greatly  in  his  stern  discipline. 
He  tried  the  men,  and  they  confessed  to  their 
guilt.  One  got  away;  and,  as  it  might  appear 
that  Walker  had  connived  at  his  escape,  to  the 
second  man  was  shown  no  mercy.  When  one 
reads  how  severe  was  Walker  in  his  punish- 
ments, and  how  frequently  the  death  penalty 
was  invoked  by  him  against  his  own  few  fol- 
lowers, the  wonder  grows  that  these  men,  as 
independent  and  as  unaccustomed  to  restraint 
as  were  those  who  first  joined  him,  submitted 
to  his  leadership.  One  can  explain  it  only  by 
the  personal  quality  of  Walker  himself. 

Among  these  reckless,  fearless  outlaws, 
who,  despising  their  allies,  believed  and 
proved  that  with  his  rifle  one  American  could 
account  for  a  dozen  Nicaraguans,  Walker  was 
the  one  man  who  did  not  boast  or  drink  or 
gamble,  who  did  not  even  swear,  who  never 
looked  at  a  woman,  and  who,  in  money  mat- 
ters, was  scrupulously  honest  and  unself-seek- 

165 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

ing.  In  a  fight,  his  followers  knew  that  for 
them  he  would  risk  being  shot  just  as  uncon- 
cernedly as  to  maintain  his  authority  he  would 
shoot  one  of  them. 

Treachery,  cowardice,  looting,  any  indig- 
nity to  women,  he  punished  with  death ;  but  to 
the  wounded,  either  of  his  own  or  of  the  ene- 
my's forces,  he  was  as  gentle  as  a  Nursing  Sis- 
ter; and  the  brave  and  able  he  rewarded  with 
instant  promotion  and  higher  pay.  In  no  one 
trait  was  he  a  demagogue.  One  can  find  no 
effort  on  his  part  to  ingratiate  himself  with  his 
men.  Among  the  officers  of  his  staff  there 
were  no  favorites.  He  messed  alone,  and  at 
all  times  kept  to  himself.  He  spoke  little,  and 
then  with  utter  lack  of  self-consciousness.  In 
the  face  of  injustice,  perjury,  or  physical  dan- 
ger, he  was  always  calm,  firm,  dispassionate. 
But  it  is  said  that  on  those  infrequent  occasions 
when  his  anger  asserted  itself,  the  steady  steel- 
gray  eyes  flashed  so  menacingly  that  those 
who  faced  them  would  as  soon  look  down  the 
barrel  of  his  Colt. 

The  impression  one  gets  of  him  gathered 
from  his  recorded  acts,  from  his  own  writings, 
from  the  writings  of  those  who  fought  with 

166 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

him  is  of  a  silent,  student-like  young  man  be- 
lieving religiously  in  his  "  star  of  destiny  " ; 
but,  in  all  matters  that  did  not  concern  himself, 
possessed  of  a  grim  sense  of  fun.  The  sayings 
of  his  men  that  in  his  history  of  the  war  he  re- 
cords, show  a  distinct  appreciation  of  the  Bret 
Harte  school  of  humor.  As,  for  instance,  when 
he  tells  how  he  wished  to  make  one  of  them 
a  drummer  boy  and  the  Calif ornian  drawled: 
"No,  thanks,  colonel,  I  never  seen  a  pic- 
ture of  a  battle  yet  that  the  first  thing  in  it 
wasn't  a  dead  drummer  boy  with  a  busted 
drum/' 

In  Walker  the  personal  vanity  which  is  so 
characteristic  of  the  soldier  of  fortune  was 
utterly  lacking.  In  a  land  where  a  captain 
bedecks  himself  like  a  field  marshal,  Walker 
wore  his  trousers  stuffed  in  his  boots,  a  civil- 
ian's blue  frock-coat,  and  the  slouch  hat  of  the 
period,  with,  for  his  only  ornament,  the  red 
ribbon  of  the  Democrats.  The  authority  he 
wielded  did  not  depend  upon  braid  or  buttons, 
and  only  when  going  into  battle  did  he  wear 
his  sword.  In  appearance  he  was  slightly  built, 
rather  below  the  medium  height,  smooth 

shaven  and  with  deep-set  gray  eyes.     These 

167 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

eyes  apparently,  as  they  gave  him  his  nick- 
name, were  his  most  marked  feature. 

His  followers  called  him,  and  later,  when 
he  was  thirty-two  years  old,  he  was  known  all 
over  the  United  States  as  "the  Gray-Eyed 
Man  of  Destiny." 

From  the  first  Walker  recognized  that  in 
order  to  establish  himself  in  Nicaragua  he 
must  keep  in  touch  with  all  possible  recruits 
arriving  from  San  Francisco  and  New  York, 
and  that  to  do  this  he  must  hold  the  line  of 
transit  from  the  Caribbean  Sea  to  the  Pacific. 
At  this  time  the  sea  routes  to  the  gold  fields 
were  three :  by  sailing  vessel  around  the  Cape, 
one  over  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  one, 
which  was  the  shortest,  across  Nicaragua.  By 
a  charter  from  the  Government  of  Nicaragua, 
the  right  to  transport  passengers  across  this 
isthmus  was  controlled  by  the  Accessory  Tran- 
sit Company  of  which  the  first  Cornelius  Van- 
derbilt  was  president.  His  company  owned  a 
line  of  ocean  steamers  both  on  the  Pacific  side 
and  on  the  Atlantic  side.  Passengers  en  route 
from  New  York  to  the  gold  fields  were  landed 
by  these  latter  steamers  at  Grey  Town  on  the 
west  coast  of  Nicaragua,  and  sent  by  boats  of 

168 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

light  draught  up  the  San  Juan  River  to  Lake 
Nicaragua.  There  they  were  met  by  larger 
lake  steamers  and  conveyed  across  the  lake  to 
Virgin  Bay.  From  that  point  in  carriages  and 
on  mule  back  they  were  carried  twelve  miles 
overland  to  the  port  of  San  Juan  del  Sud  on 
the  Pacific  Coast  where  they  boarded  the  com- 
pany's steamers  to  San  Francisco. 

During  the  year  of  Walker's  occupation  the 
number  of  passengers  crossing  Nicaragua  was 
an  average  of  about  two  thousand  a  month. 

It  was  to  control  this  route  that  immediately 
after  his  first  defeat  Walker  returned  to  San 
Juan  del  Sud,  and  in  a  smart  skirmish  de- 
feated the  enemy  and  secured  possession  of 
Virgin  Bay,  the  halting  place  for  the  passen- 
gers going  east  or  west.  In  this  fight  Walker 
was  outnumbered  five  to  one,  but  his  losses 
were  only  three  natives  killed  and  a  few  Amer- 
icans wounded.  The  Legitimists  lost  sixty 
killed  and  a  hundred  wounded.  This  propor- 
tion of  losses  shows  how  fatally  effective  was 
the  rifle  and  revolver  fire  of  the  Californians. 
Indeed,  so  wonderful  was  it  that  when  some 
years  ago  I  visited  the  towns  and  cities  cap- 
tured by  the  filibusters  I  found  that  the  marks- 

169 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

manship  of  Walker's  Phalanx  was  still  a  tra- 
dition. Indeed,  thanks  to  the  filibusters,  to-day 
in  any  part  of  Central  America  a  man  from  the 
States,  if  in  trouble,  has  only  to  show  his  gun. 
No  native  will  wait  for  him  to  fire  it. 

After  the  fight  at  Virgin  Bay,  Walker  re- 
ceived from  California  fifty  recruits — a  very 
welcome  addition  to  his  force,  and  as  he  now 
commanded  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
Americans,  three  hundred  Nicaraguans,  under 
a  friendly  native,  General  Valle,  and  two  brass 
cannon,  he  decided  to  again  attack  Rivas. 
Rivas  is  on  the  lake  just  above  Virgin  Bay; 
still  further  up  is  Granada,  which  was  the 
headquarters  of  the  Legitimists. 

Fearing  Walker's  attack  upon  Rivas,  the 
Legitimist  troops  were  hurried  south  from 
Granada  to  that  city,  leaving  Granada  but 
slightly  protected.  Through  intercepted  let- 
ters Walker  learned  of  this  and  determined  to 
strike  at  Granada.  By  night,  in  one  of  the  lake 
steamers,  he  skirted  the  shore,  and  just  before 
daybreak  with  fires  banked  and  all  lights  out, 
drew  up  to  a  point  near  the  city.  The  day 
previous  the  Legitimists  had  gained  a  victory, 

and  as  good  luck  or  Walker's  "  destiny  "  would 

170 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

have  it,  the  night  before  Granada  had  been 
celebrating  the  event.  Much  joyous  dancing 
and  much  drinking  of  aguardiente  had  buried 
the  inhabitants  in  a  drugged  slumber.  The 
garrison  slept,  the  sentries  slept,  the  city  slept. 
But  when  the  convent  bells  called  for  early 
mass,  the  air  was  shaken  with  sharp  reports 
that  to  the  ears  of  the  Legitimists  were  unfa- 
miliar and  disquieting.  They  were  not  the 
loud  explosions  of  their  own  muskets  nor  of 
the  smooth  bores  of  the  Democrats.  The 
sounds  were  sharp  and  cruel  like  the  crack  of 
a  whip.  The  sentries  flying  from  their  posts 
disclosed  the  terrifying  truth.  "  The  Filibus- 
ter os !  "  they  cried.  Following  them  at  a  gal- 
lop came  Walker  and  Valle  and  behind  them 
the  men  of  the  awful  Phalanx,  whom  already 
the  natives  had  learned  to  fear;  the  bearded 
giants  in  red  flannel  shirts  who  at  Rivas  on 
foot  had  charged  the  artillery  with  revolvers, 
who  at  Virgin  Bay  when  wounded  had  drawn 
from  their  boots  glittering  bowie  knives  and 
hurled  them  like  arrows,  who  at  all  times  shot 
with  the  accuracy  of  the  hawk  falling  upon  a 
squawking  hen. 

There  was  a  brief  terrified  stand  in  the 
171 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

Plaza,  and  then  a  complete  rout  As  was  their 
custom,  the  native  Democrats  at  once  began 
to  loot  the  city.  But  Walker  put  his  sword 
into  the  first  one  of  these  he  met,  and  ordered 
the  Americans  to  arrest  all  others  found  steal- 
ing, and  to  return  the  goods  already  stolen. 
Over  a  hundred  political  prisoners  in  the  Car- 
tel were  released  by  Walker,  and  the  ball  and 
chain  to  which  each  was  fastened  stricken  off. 
More  than  two-thirds  of  them  at  once  enlisted 
under  Walker's  banner. 

He  now  was  in  a  position  to  dictate  to  the 
enemy  his  own  terms  of  peace,  but  a  fatal 
blunder  on  the  part  of  Parker  H.  French,  a 
lieutenant  of  Walker's,  postponed  peace  for 
several  weeks,  and  led  to  unfortunate  reprisals. 
French  had  made  an  unauthorized  and  unsuc- 
cessful assault  on  San  Carlos  at  the  eastern 
end  of  the  lake,  and  the  Legitimists  retaliated 
at  Virgin  Bay  by  killing  half  a  dozen  peaceful 
passengers,  and  at  San  Carlos  by  firing  at  a 
transit  steamer.  For  this  the  excuse  of  the 
Legitimists  was,  that  now  that  Walker  was 
using  the  lake  steamers  as  transports,  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  know  whether  the  boats 

were  occupied  by  his  men  or  neutral  passen- 

172 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

gers.  As  he  could  not  reach  the  guilty  ones, 
Walker  held  responsible  for  their  acts  their 
secretary  of  state,  who  at  the  taking  of  Gra- 
nada was  among  the  prisoners.  He  was  tried 
by  court-martial  and  shot,  "  a  victim  of  the 
new  interpretation  of  the  principles  of  constitu- 
tional government."  While  this  act  of  Walk- 
er's was  certainly  stretching  the  theory  of 
responsibility  to  the  breaking  point,  its  imme- 
diate effect  was  to  bring  about  a  hasty  surren- 
der and  a  meeting  between  the  generals  of  the 
two  political  parties.  Thus,  four  months  after 
Walker  and  his  fifty-seven  followers  landed 
in  Nicaragua,  a  suspension  of  hostilities  was 
arranged,  and  the  side  for  which  the  Ameri- 
cans had  fought  was  in  power.  Walker  was 
made  commander-in-chief  of  an  army  of  twelve 
hundred  men  with  salary  of  six  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year.  A  man  named  Rivas  was  ap- 
pointed temporary  president. 

To  Walker  this  pause  in  the  fight  was  most 
welcome.  It  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  enlist 
recruits  and  to  organize  his  men  for  the  better 
accomplishment  of  what  was  the  real  object 
of  his  going  to  Nicaragua.  He  now  had  under 
him  a  remarkable  force,  one  of  the  most  effec- 
ts 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

live  known  to  military  history.  For  although 
six  months  had  not  yet  passed  the  organiza- 
tion he  now  commanded  was  as  unlike  the  Pha- 
lanx of  the  fifty-eight  adventurers  who  were 
driven  back  at  Rivas,  as  were  FalstafFs  fol- 
lowers from  the  regiment  of  picked  men  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Roosevelt.  Instead  of  the 
undisciplined  and  lawless  now  being  in  the  ma- 
jority, the  ranks  were  filled  with  the  pick  of  the 
California  mining  camps,  with  veterans  of  the 
Mexican  War,  with  young  Southerners  of 
birth  and  spirit,  and  with  soldiers  of  fortune 
from  all  of  the  great  armies  of  Europe. 

In  the  Civil  War,  which  so  soon  followed, 
and  later  in  the  service  of  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt,  were  several  of  Walker's  officers,  and 
for  years  after  his  death  there  was  no  war  in 
which  one  of  the  men  trained  by  him  in  the 
jungles  of  Nicaragua  did  not  distinguish  him- 
self. In  his  memoirs,  the  Englishman,  General 
Charles  Frederic  Henningsen,  writes  that 
though  he  had  taken  part  in  some  of  the  great- 
est battles  of  the  Civil  War  he  would  pit  a  thou- 
sand men  of  Walker's  command  against  any 
five  thousand  Confederate  or  Union  soldiers. 
And  General  Henningsen  was  one  who  spoke 

174 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

with  authority.  Before  he  joined  Walker  he 
had  served  in  Spain  under  Don  Carlos,  in 
Hungary  under  Kossuth,  and  in  Bulgaria. 

Of  Walker's  men,  a  regiment  of  which  he 
commanded,  he  writes :  "  I  often  have  seen 
them  march  with  a  broken  or  compound  frac- 
tured arm  in  splints,  and  using  the  other  to 
fire  the  rifle  or  revolver.  Those  with  a  frac- 
tured thigh  or  wounds  which  rendered  them 
incapable  of  removal,  shot  themselves.  Such 
men  do  not  turn  up  in  the  average  of  every- 
day life,  nor  do  I  ever  expect  to  see  their  like 
again.  All  military  science  failed  on  a  sud- 
denly given  field  before  such  assailants,  who 
came  at  a  run  to  close  with  their  revolvers  and 
who  thought  little  of  charging  a  gun  battery, 
pistol  in  hand/' 

Another  graduate  of  Walker's  army  was 
Captain  Fred  Townsend  Ward,  a  native  of 
Salem,  Mass.,  who  after  the  death  of  Walker 
organized  and  led  the  Ever  Victorious  army 
that  put  down  the  Tai-Ping  rebellion,  and  per- 
formed the  many  feats  of  martial  glory  for 
which  Chinese  Gordon  received  the  credit.  In 
Shanghai,  to  the  memory  of  the  filibuster, 
there  are  to-day  two  temples  in  his  honor. 

175 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

Joaquin  Miller,  the  poet,  miner,  and  soldier, 
who  but  recently  was  a  picturesque  figure  on 
the  hotel  porch  at  Saratoga  Springs,  was  one 
of  the  young  Calif ornians  who  was  "  out  with 
Walker,"  and  who  later  in  his  career  by  his 
verse  helped  to  preserve  the  name  of  his  be- 
loved commander.  I.  C.  Jamison,  living  to-day 
in  Guthrie,  Oklahoma,  was  a  captain  under 
Walker.  When  war  again  came,  as  it  did 
within  four  months,  these  were  the  men  who 
made  Walker  president  of  Nicaragua. 

During  the  four  months  in  all  but  title  he 
had  been  president,  and  as  such  he  was  recog- 
nized and  feared.  It  was  against  him,  not 
Rivas,  that  in  February,  1856,  the  neighboring 
republic  of  Costa  Rica  declared  war.  For 
three  months  this  war  continued  with  varying 
fortunes  until  the  Costa  Ricans  were  driven 
across  the  border. 

In  June  of  the  same  year  Rivas  called  a  gen- 
eral election  for  president,  announcing  himself 
as  the  candidate  of  the  Democrats.  Two  other 
Democrats  also  presented  themselves,  Salazar 
and  Ferrer.  The  Legitimists,  recognizing  in 
their  former  enemy  the  real  ruler  of  the  coun- 
try, nominated  Walker.  By  an  overwhelming 

176 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

majority  he  was  elected,  receiving  15,835  votes 
to  867  cast  for  Rivas.  Salazar  received  2,087 ; 
Ferrer,  4,447. 

Walker  now  was  the  legal  as  well  as  the 
actual  ruler  of  the  country,  and  at  no  time  in 
its  history,  as  during  Walker's  administration, 
was  Nicaragua  governed  so  justly,  so  wisely, 
and  so  well.  But  in  his  success  the  neighbor- 
ing republics  saw  a  menace  to  their  own  inde- 
pendence. To  the  four  other  republics  of  Cen- 
tral America  the  five-pointed  blood-red  star  on 
the  flag  of  the  filibusters  bore  a  sinister  motto : 
"  Five  or  None."  The  meaning  was  only  too 
unpleasantly  obvious.  At  once  Costa  Rica  on 
the  south,  and  Guatemala,  Salvador,  and  Hon- 
duras from  the  north,  with  the  malcontents  of 
Nicaragua,  declared  war  against  the  foreign 
invader.  Again  Walker  was  in  the  field  with 
opposed  to  him  21,000  of  the  allies.  The 
strength  of  his  own  force  varied.  On  his  elec- 
tion as  president  the  backbone  of  his  army  was 
a  magnificently  trained  body  of  veterans  to  the 
number  of  2,000.  This  was  later  increased  to 
3,500,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  at  any  one  time  it 
ever  exceeded  that  number.  His  muster  and 

hospital  rolls  show  that  during  his  entire  occu- 

177 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

pation  of  Nicaragua  there  were  enlisted,  at  one 
time  or  another,  under  his  banner  10,000  men. 
While  in  his  service,  of  this  number,  by  hostile 
shots  or  fever,  5,000  died. 

To  describe  the  battles  with  the  allies  would 
be  interminable  and  wearying.  In  every  par- 
ticular they  are  much  alike,  the  long  silent 
night  march,  the  rush  at  daybreak,  the  fight 
to  gain  strategic  positions  either  of  the  bar- 
racks, or  of  the  Cathedral  in  the  Plaza,  the 
hand-to-hand  fighting  from  behind  barricades 
and  adobe  walls.  The  outcome  of  these  fights 
sometimes  varied,  but  the  final  result  was  never 
in  doubt,  and  had  no  outside  influences  inter- 
vened, in  time  each  republic  in  Central  America 
would  have  come  under  the  five-pointed  star. 

In  Costa  Rica  there  is  a  marble  statue,  show- 
ing that  republic  represented  as  a  young 
woman  with  her  foot  upon  the  neck  of  Walker. 
Some  night  a  truth-loving  American  will  place 
a  can  of  dynamite  at  the  foot  of  that  statue,  and 
walk  hurriedly  away.  Unaided,  neither  Costa 
Rica,  nor  any  other  Central  American  repub- 
lic, could  have  driven  Walker  from  her  soil. 
His  downfall  came  through  his  own  people,  and 

through  an  act  of  his  which  provoked  them. 

178 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

When  Walker  was  elected  president  he 
found  that  the  Accessory  Transit  Company 
had  not  lived  up  to  the  terms  of  its  concession 
with  the  Nicaraguan  Government.  His  efforts 
to  hold  it  to  the  terms  of  its  concession  led  to 
his  overthrow.  By  its  charter  the  Transit 
Company  agreed  to  pay  to  Nicaragua  $10,000 
annually  and  ten  per  cent  of  the  net  profits,  but 
the  company,  whose  history  the  United  States 
Minister,  Squire,  characterized  as  "  an  infa- 
mous career  of  deception  and  fraud,"  manipu- 
lated its  books  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  show 
that  there  never  were  any  profits.  Doubting 
this,  Walker  sent  a  commission  to  New  York 
to  investigate.  The  commission  discovered 
the  fraud  and  demanded  in  back-payments 
$250,000.  When  the  company  refused  to  pay 
this,  as  security  for  the  debt  Walker  seized  its 
steamers,  wharves,  and  storehouses,  revoked 
its  charter,  and  gave  a  new  charter  to  two  of 
its  directors,  Morgan  and  Garrison,  who,  in 
San  Francisco,  were  working  against  Vander- 
bilt.  In  doing  this,  while  he  was  legally  in  the 
right,  he  committed  a  fatal  error.  He  had 
made  a  powerful  enemy  of  Vanderbilt,  and  he 

had  shut  off  his  only  lines  of  communication 

179 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

with  the  United  States.  For,  enraged  at  the 
presumption  of  the  filibuster  president,  Van- 
derbilt  withdrew  his  ocean  steamers,  thus  leav- 
ing Walker  without  men  or  ammunition,  and 
as  isolated  as  though  upon  a  deserted  island. 
He  possessed  Vanderbilt' s  boats  upon  the  San 
Juan  River  and  Nicaragua  Lake,  but  they 
were  of  use  to  him  only  locally. 

His  position  was  that  of  a  man  holding  the 
centre  span  of  a  bridge  of  which  every  span  on 
either  side  of  him  has  been  destroyed. 

Vanderbilt  did  not  rest  at  withdrawing 
his  steamers,  but  by  supporting  the  Costa 
Ricans  with  money  and  men,  carried  the  war 
into  Central  America.  From  Washington  he 
fought  Walker  through  Secretary  of  State 
Marcy,  who  proved  a  willing  tool. 

Spencer  and  Webster,  and  the  other  soldiers 
of  fortune  employed  by  Vanderbilt,  closed  the 
route  on  the  Caribbean  side,  and  the  man-of- 
war  St.  Marys,  commanded  by  Captain  Davis, 
was  ordered  to  San  Juan  on  the  Pacific  side. 
The  instructions  given  to  Captain  Davis  were 
to  aid  the  allies  in  forcing  Walker  out  of  Nica- 
ragua. Walker  claims  that  these  orders  were 
given  to  Marcy  by  Vanderbilt  and  by  Marcy 

180 


WILLIAM    WALKER 

to  Commodore  Mervin,  who  was  Marcy's  per- 
sonal friend  and  who  issued  them  to  Davis. 
Davis  claims  that  he  acted  only  in  the  interest 
of  humanity  to  save  Walker  in  spite  of  himself. 
In  any  event,  the  result  was  the  same.  Walker, 
his  force  cut  down  by  hostile  shot  and  fever 
and  desertion,  took  refuge  in  Rivas,  where  he 
was  besieged  by  the  allied  armies.  There  was 
no  bread  in  the  city.  The  men  were  living  on 
horse  and  mule  meat.  There  was  no  salt. 
The  hospital  was  filled  with  wounded  and  those 
stricken  with  fever. 

Captain  Davis,  in  the  name  of  humanity, 
demanded  Walker's  surrender  to  the  United 
States.  Walker  told  him  he  would  not  sur- 
render, but  that  if  the  time  came  when  he 
found  he  must  fly,  he  would  do  so  in  his  own 
little  schooner  of  war,  the  Granada,  which  con- 
stituted his  entire  navy,  and  in  her,  as  a  free 
man,  take  his  forces  where  he  pleased.  Then 
Davis  informed  Walker  that  the  force  Walker 
had  sent  to  recapture  the  Greytown  route  had 
been  defeated  by  the  janizaries  of  Vanderbilt, 
that  the  steamers  from  San  Francisco,  on 
which  Walker  now  counted  to  bring  him  ree'n- 
forcements,  had  also  been  taken  off  the  line, 

181 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF   FORTUNE 

and  finally  that  it  was  his  "  unalterable  and 
deliberate  intention "  to  seize  the  Granada. 
On  this  point  his  orders  left  him  no  choice. 
The  Granada  was  the  last  means  of  transpor- 
tation still  left  to  Walker.  He  had  hoped  to 
make  a  sortie  and  on  board  her  to  escape  from 
the  country.  But  with  his  ship  taken  from 
him  and  no  longer  able  to  sustain  the  siege  of 
the  allies,  he  surrendered  to  the  forces  of  the 
United  States.  In  the  agreement  drawn  up 
by  him  and  Davis,  Walker  provided  for  the 
care,  by  Davis,  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  for 
the  protection  after  his  departure  of  the  na- 
tives who  had  fought  with  him,  and  for  the 
transportation  of  himself  and  officers  to  the 
United  States. 

On  his  arrival  in  New  York  he  received  a 
welcome  such  as  later  was  extended  to  Kos- 
suth,  and,  in  our  own  day,  to  Admiral  Dewey. 
The  city  was  decorated  with  flags  and  arches ; 
and  banquets,  fetes,  and  public  meetings  were 
everywhere  held  in  his  honor.  Walker  re- 
ceived these  demonstrations  modestly,  and  on 
every  public  occasion  announced  his  determi- 
nation to  return  to  the  country  of  which  he 

was  the  president,  and  from  which  by  force 

182 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

he  had  been  driven.  At  Washington,  where 
he  went  to  present  his  claims,  he  received  scant 
encouragement.  His  protest  against  Captain 
Davis  was  referred  to  Congress,  where  it  was 
allowed  to  die. 

Within  a  month  Walker  organized  an  ex- 
pedition with  which  to  regain  his  rights  in 
Nicaragua,  and  as,  in  his  new  constitution  for 
that  country,  he  had  annulled  the  old  law  abol- 
ishing slavery,  among  the  slave-holders  of  the 
South  he  found  enough  money  and  recruits  to 
enable  him  to  at  once  leave  the  United  States. 
With  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  he  sailed  from 
New  Orleans  and  landed  at  San  del  Norte  on 
the  Caribbean  side.  While  he  formed  a  camp 
on  the  harbor  of  San  Juan,  one  of  his  officers, 
with  fifty  men,  proceeded  up  the  river,  and 
capturing  the  town  of  Castillo  Vie  jo  and  four 
of  the  Transit  steamers,  was  in  a  fair  way  to 
obtain  possession  of  the  entire  route.  At  this 
moment  upon  the  scene  arrived  the  United 
States  frigate  Wabash  and  Hiram  Paulding, 
who  landed  a  force  of  three  hundred  and  fifty 
blue- jackets  with  howitzers,  and  turned  the 
guns  of  his  frigate  upon  the  camp  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  Nicaragua.  Captain  Engel,  who  pre- 

183 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

sented  the  terms  of  surrender  to  Walker,  said 
to  him :  "  General,  I  am  sorry  to  see  you  here. 
A  man  like  you  is  worthy  to  command  better 
men/'  To  which  Walker  replied  grimly:  "  If 
I  had  a  third  the  number  you  have  brought 
against  me,  I  would  show  you  which  of  us  two 
commands  the  better  men/' 

For  the  third  time  in  his  history  Walker 
surrendered  to  the  armed  forces  of  his  own 
country. 

On  his  arrival  in  the  United  States,  in  fulfil- 
ment of  his  parole  to  Paulding,  Walker  at  once 
presented  himself  at  Washington  a  prisoner 
of  war.  But  President  Buchanan,  although 
Paulding  had  acted  exactly  as  Davis  had  done, 
refused  to  support  him,  and  in  a  message  to 
Congress  declared  that  that  officer  had  com- 
mitted a  grave  error  and  established  an  unsafe 
precedent. 

On  the  strength  of  this  Walker  demanded 
of  the  United  States  Government  indemnity 
for  his  losses,  and  that  it  should  furnish  him 
and  his  followers  transportation  even  to  the 
very  camp  from  which  its  representatives  had 
torn  him.  This  demand,  as  Walker  foresaw, 
was  not  considered  seriously,  and  with  a  force 

184 


WILLIAM    WALKER 

of  about  one  hundred  men,  among  whom  were 
many  of  his  veterans,  he  again  set  sail  from 
New  Orleans.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  to  pre- 
vent his  return,  there  now  were  on  each  side 
of  the  Isthmus  both  American  and  British 
men-of-war,  Walker,  with  the  idea  of  reach- 
ing Nicaragua  by  land,  stopped  off  at  Hon- 
duras. In  his  war  with  the  allies  the  Hondu- 
ranians had  been  as  savage  in  their  attacks 
upon  his  men  as  even  the  Costa  Ricans,  and 
finding  his  old  enemies  now  engaged  in  a  local 
revolution,  on  landing,  Walker  declared  for 
the  weaker  side  and  captured  the  important 
seaport  of  Trujillo.  He  no  sooner  had  taken 
it  than  the  British  warship  Icarus  anchored  in 
the  harbor,  and  her  commanding  officer,  Cap- 
tain Salmon,  notified  Walker  that  the  British 
Government  held  a  mortgage  on  the  revenues 
of  the  port,  and  that  to  protect  the  interests  of 
his  Government  he  intended  to  take  the  town. 
Walker  answered  that  he  had  made  Trujillo 
a  free  port,  and  that  Great  Britain's  claims  no 
longer  existed. 

The  British  officer  replied  that  if  Walker 
surrendered  himself  and  his  men  he  would 
carry  them  as  prisoners  to  the  United  States, 

185 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

and  that  if  he  did  not,  he  would  bombard  the 
town.  At  this  moment  General  Alvarez,  with 
seven  hundred  Honduranians,  from  the  land 
side  surrounded  Trujillo,  and  prepared  to  at- 
tack. Against  such  odds  by  sea  and  land 
Walker  was  helpless,  and  he  determined  to  fly. 
That  night,  with  seventy  men,  he  left  the  town 
and  proceeded  down  the  coast  toward  Nica- 
ragua. The  Icarus,  having  taken  on  board 
Alvarez,  started  in  pursuit.  The  President  of 
Nicaragua  was  found  in  a  little  Indian  fishing 
village,  and  Salmon  sent  in  his  shore-boats  and 
demanded  his  surrender.  On  leaving  Trujillo, 
Walker  had  been  forced  to  abandon  all  his 
ammunition  save  thirty  rounds  a  man,  and  all 
of  his  food  supplies  excepting  two  barrels  of 
bread.  On  the  coast  of  this  continent  there  is 
no  spot  more  unhealthy  than  Honduras,  and 
when  the  Englishmen  entered  the  fishing  vil- 
lage they  found  Walker's  seventy  men  lying 
in  the  palm  huts  helpless  with  fever,  and  with 
no  stomach  to  fight  British  blue- jackets  with 
whom  they  had  no  quarrel.  Walker  inquired 
of  Salmon  if  he  were  asking  him  to  surrender 
to  the  British  or  to  the  Honduranian  forces, 
and  twice  Salmon  assured  him,  "  distinctly  and 

1 86 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

specifically/'  that  he  was  surrendering  to  the 
forces  of  her  Majesty.  With  this  understand- 
ing Walker  and  his  men  laid  down  their  arms 
and  were  conveyed  to  the  Icarus.  But  on 
arriving  at  Trujillo,  in  spite  of  their  protests 
and  demands  for  trial  by  a  British  tribunal, 
Salmon  turned  over  his  prisoners  to  the  Hon- 
duranian general.  What  excuse  for  this  is 
now  given  by  his  descendants  in  the  Salmon 
family  I  do  not  know.  Probably  it  is  a  subject 
they  avoid,  and,  in  history,  Salmon's  version 
has  never  been  given,  which  for  him,  perhaps, 
is  an  injustice.  But  the  fact  remains  that  he 
turned  over  his  white  brothers  to  the  mercies 
of  half-Indian,  half-negro,  savages,  who  were 
not  allies  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  whose  quar- 
rels she  had  no  interest.  And  Salmon  did  this, 
knowing  there  could  be  but  one  end.  If  he  did 
not  know  it,  his  stupidity  equalled  what  now 
appears  to  be  heartless  indifference.  So  far 
as  to  secure  pardon  for  all  except  the  leader 
and  one  faithful  follower,  Colonel  Rudler  of 
the  famous  Phalanx,  Salmon  did  use  his  au- 
thority, and  he  offered,  if  Walker  would  ask 
as  an  American  citizen,  to  intercede  for  him. 

But  Walker,  with  a  distinct  sense  of  loyalty 

187 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

to  the  country  he  had  conquered,  and  whose 
people  had  honored  him  with  their  votes,  re- 
fused to  accept  life  from  the  country  of  his 


UNITED  STATES 


GULF  or 


ROUTES  OF  WALKER'S  THREE  FILIBUSTERING  EXPEDITIONS. 

birth,  the  country  that  had  injured  and  re- 
pudiated him. 

Even  in  his  extremity,  abandoned  and  alone 
on  a  strip  of  glaring  coral  and  noisome  swamp 

188 


WILLIAM   WALKER 

land,  surrounded  only  by  his  enemies,  he  re- 
mained true  to  his  ideal. 

At  thirty-seven  life  is  very  sweet,  many 
things  still  seem  possible,  and  before  him, 
could  his  life  be  spared,  Walker  beheld  greater 
conquests,  more  power,  a  new  South  control- 
ling a  Nicaragua  canal,  a  network  of  busy  rail- 
roads, great  squadrons  of  merchant  vessels, 
himself  emperor  of  Central  America.  On  the 
gunboat  the  gold-braided  youth  had  but  to 
raise  his  hand,  and  Walker  again  would  be  a 
free  man.  But  the  gold-braided  one  would 
render  this  service  only  on  the  condition  that 
Walker  would  appeal  to  him  as  an  American; 
it  was  not  enough  that  Walker  was  a  human 
being.  The  condition  Walker  could  not  grant. 

"  The  President  of  Nicaragua/'  he  said,  "  is 
a  citizen  of  Nicaragua." 

They  led  him  out  at  sunrise  to  a  level  piece 
of  sand  along  the  beach,  and  as  the  priest  held 
the  crucifix  in  front  of  him  he  spoke  to  his 
executioners  in  Spanish,  simply  and  gravely: 
"  I  die  a  Roman  Catholic.  In  making  war 
upon  you  at  the  invitation  of  the  people  of 
Ruatan  I  was  wrong.  Of  your  people  I  ask 

pardon.    I  accept  my  punishment  with  resig- 

189 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

nation.  I  would  like  to  think  my  death  will 
be  for  the  good  of  society." 

From  a  distance  of  twenty  feet  three  sol- 
diers fired  at  him,  but,  although  each  shot  took 
effect,  Walker  was  not  dead.  So,  a  sergeant 
stooped,  and  with  a  pistol  killed  the  man  who 
would  have  made  him  one  of  an  empire  of 
slaves. 

Had  Walker  lived  four  years  longer  to  ex- 
hibit upon  the  great  board  of  the  Civil  War 
his  ability  as  a  general,  he  would,  I  believe,  to- 
day be  ranked  as  one  of  America's  greatest 
fighting  men. 

And  because  the  people  of  his  own  day  de- 
stroyed him  is  no  reason  that  we  should  with- 
hold from  this  American,  the  greatest  of  all 
filibusters,  the  recognition  of  his  genius. 


190 


VI 

MAJOR  BURNHAM,    CHIEF   OF   SCOUTS 

AMONG  the  Soldiers  of  Fortune  whose 
stories  have  been  told  in  this  book  were 
men  who  are  no  longer  living,  men  who,  to 
the  United  States,  were  strangers,  and  men 
who  were  of  interest  chiefly  because  in  what 
they  attempted,  they  failed. 

The  subject  of  this  article  is  none  of  these. 
His  adventures  are  as  remarkable  as  any  that 
ever  led  a  small  boy  to  dig  behind  the  barn 
for  buried  treasure,  or  stalk  Indians  in  the 
orchard.  But  entirely  apart  from  his  adven- 
tures he  obtains  our  interest  because  in  what 
he  has  attempted  he  has  not  failed,  because 
he  is  one  of  our  own  people,  one  of  the  earliest 
and  best  types  of  American,  and  because,  so 
far  from  being  dead  and  buried,  he  is  at  this 
moment  very  much  alive,  and  engaged  in 

Mexico  in  searching  for  a  buried  city.     For 

191 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

exercise,  he  is  alternately  chasing,  or  being 
chased  by,  Yaqui  Indians. 

In  his  home  in  Pasadena,  Cal.,  where 
sometimes  he  rests  quietly  for  almost  a 
week  at  a  time,  the  neighbors  know  him  as 
"  Fred "  Burnham.  In  England  the  news- 
papers crowned  him  "  The  King  of  Scouts. " 
Later,  when  he  won  an  official  title,  they 
called  him  "  Major  Frederick  Russell  Burn- 
ham,  D.  S.  O." 

Some  men  are  born  scouts,  others  by  train- 
ing become  scouts.  From  his  father  Burn- 
ham  inherited  his  instinct  for  woodcraft,  and 
to  this  instinct,  which  in  him  is  as  keen  as  in 
a  wild  deer  or  a  mountain  lion,  he  has  added, 
in  the  jungle  and  on  the  prairie  and  mountain 
ranges,  years  of  the  hardest,  most  relentless 
schooling.  In  those  years  he  has  trained  him- 
self to  endure  the  most  appalling  fatigues, 
hunger,  thirst,  and  wounds;  has  subdued  the 
brain  to  infinite  patience,  has  learned  to  force 
every  nerve  in  his  body  to  absolute  obedience, 
to  still  even  the  beating  of  his  heart.  Indeed, 
than  Burnham  no  man  of  my  acquaintance  to 
my  knowledge  has  devoted  himself  to  his  life's 

work  more  earnestly,  more  honestly,  and  with 

192 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

such  single-mindedness  of  purpose.  To  him 
scouting  is  as  exact  a  study  as  is  the  piano  to 
Paderewski,  with  the  result  that  to-day  what 
the  Pole  is  to  other  pianists,  the  American  is 
to  all  other  "  trackers/'  woodmen,  and  scouts. 
He  reads  "  the  face  of  Nature  "  as  you  read 
your  morning  paper.  To  him  a  movement  of 
his  horse's  ears  is  as  plain  a  warning  as  the 
"  Go  SLOW  "  of  an  automobile  sign ;  and  he  so 
saves  from  ambush  an  entire  troop.  In  the 
glitter  of  a  piece  of  quartz  in  the  firelight  he 
discovers  King  Solomon's  mines.  Like  the 
horned  cattle  he  can  tell  by  the  smell  of  it  in 
the  air  the  near  presence  of  water,  and  where, 
glaring  in  the  sun,  you  can  see  only  a  bare 
kopje,  he  distinguishes  the  muzzle  of  a  pom- 
pom, the  crown  of  a  Boer  sombrero,  the  lev- 
elled barrel  of  a  Mauser.  He  is  the  Sherlock 
Holmes  of  all  out  of  doors. 

Besides  being  a  scout  he  is  soldier,  hunter, 
mining  expert,  and  explorer.  Within  the  last 
ten  years  the  educated  instinct  that  as  a  young- 
er man  taught  him  to  follow  the  trail  of  an 
Indian,  or  the  "  spoor  "  of  the  Kaffir  and  the 
trek  wagon,  now  leads  him  as  a  mining  expert 
to  the  hiding  places  of  copper,  silver,  and  gold, 

193 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

and  as  he  advises,  great  and  wealthy  syndi- 
cates buy  or  refuse  tracts  of  land  in  Africa 
and  Mexico  as  large  as  the  State  of  New  York. 
As  an  explorer  in  the  last  few  years  in  the 
course  of  his  expeditions  into  undiscovered 
lands,  he  has  added  to  this  little  world  many 
thousands  of  square  miles. 

Personally  Burnham  is  as  unlike  the  scout 
of  fiction,  and  of  the  Wild  West  Show,  as  it  is 
possible  for  a  man  to  be.  He  possesses  no 
flowing  locks,  his  talk  is  not  of  "greasers," 
"  grizzly  b'ars,"  or  "  pesky  redskins."  In 
fact,  because  he  is  more  widely  and  more 
thoroughly  informed,  he  is  much  better  edu- 
cated than  many  who  have  passed  through  one 
of  the  "  Big  Three  "  universities,  and  his  Eng- 
lish is  as  conventional  as  though  he  had  been 
brought  up  on  the  borders  of  Boston  Common, 
rather  than  on  the  borders  of  civilization. 

In  appearance  he  is  slight,  muscular, 
bronzed;  with  a  finely  formed  square  jaw,  and 
remarkable  light  blue  eyes.  These  eyes  ap- 
parently never  leave  yours,  but  in  reality  they 
see  everything  behind  you  and  about  you, 
above  and  below  you.  They  tell  of  him  that 

one  day,  while  out  with  a  patrol  on  the  veldt, 

194 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

he  said  he  had  lost  the  trail,  and  dismounting 
began  moving  about  on  his  hands  and  knees, 
nosing  the  ground  like  a  blood-hound,  and 
pointing  out  a  trail  that  led  back  over  the  way 
the  force  had  just  marched.  When  the  com- 
manding officer  rode  up,  Burnham  said: 

"  Don't  raise  your  head,  sir.  On  that  kopje 
to  the  right  there  is  a  commando  of  Boers." 

"When  did  you  see  them?"  asked  the 
officer. 

"  I  see  them  now,"  Burnham  answered. 

"  But  I  thought  you  were  looking  for  a  lost 
trail?" 

'  That's  what  the  Boers  on  the  kopje  think," 
said  Burnham. 

In  his  eyes,  possibly,  owing  to  the  uses  to 
which  they  have  been  trained,  the  pupils,  as 
in  the  eyes  of  animals  that  see  in  the  dark,  are 
extremely  small.  Even  in  the  photographs 
that  accompany  this  article  this  feature  of  his 
eyes  is  obvious,  and  that  he  can  see  in  the  dark 
the  Kaffirs  of  South  Africa  firmly  believe.  In 
manner  he  is  quiet,  courteous,  talking  slowly 
but  well,  and,  while  without  any  of  that  shy- 
ness that  comes  from  self-consciousness,  ex- 
tremely modest.  Indeed,  there  could  be  no 

195 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

better  proof  of  his  modesty  than  the  difficulties 
I  have  encountered  in  gathering  material  for 
this  article,  which  I  have  been  five  years  in  col- 
lecting. And  even  now  as  he  reads  it  by  his 
camp-fire,  I  can  see  him  squirm  with  embar- 
rassment. 

Burnham's  father  was  a  pioneer  mission- 
ary in  a  frontier  hamlet  called  Tivoli  on  the 
edge  of  the  Indian  reserve  of  Minnesota.  He 
was  a  stern,  severely  religious  man,  born  in 
Kentucky,  but  educated  in  New  York,  where 
he  graduated  from  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary.  He  was  wonderfully  skilled  in 
woodcraft.  Burnham's  mother  was  a  Miss 
Rebecca  Russell  of  a  well-known  family  in 
Iowa.  She  was  a  woman  of  great  courage, 
which,  in  those  days  on  that  skirmish  line  of 
civilization,  was  a  very  necessary  virtue;  and 
she  was  possessed  of  a  most  gentle  and  sweet 
disposition.  That  was  her  gift  to  her  son 
Fred,  who  was  born  on  May  n,  1861. 

His  education  as  a  child  consisted  in  memo- 
rizing many  verses  of  the  Bible,  the  "  Three 
Rs,"  and  woodcraft.  His  childhood  was 
strenuous.  In  his  mother's  arms  he  saw  the 

burning  of  the  town  of  New  Ulm,  which  was 

196 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

the  funeral  pyre  for  the  women  and  children 
of  that  place  when  they  were  massacred  by 
Red  Cloud  and  his  braves. 

On  another  occasion  Fred's  mother  fled  for 
her  life  from  the  Indians,  carrying  the  boy 
with  her.  He  was  a  husky  lad,  and  knowing 
that  if  she  tried  to  carry  him  farther  they  both 
would  be  overtaken,  she  hid  him  under  a  shock 
of  corn.  There,  the  next  morning,  the  Indians 
having  been  driven  off,  she  found  her  son 
sleeping  as  soundly  as  a  night  watchman.  In 
these  Indian  wars,  and  the  Civil  War  which 
followed,  of  the  families  of  Burnham  and  Rus- 
sell, twenty-two  of  the  men  were  killed.  There 
is  no  question  that  Burnham  comes  of  fighting 
stock. 

In  1870,  when  Fred  was  nine  years  old,  his 
father  moved  to  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  where  two 
years  later  he  died;  and  for  a  time  for  both 
mother  and  boy  there  was  poverty,  hard  and 
grinding.  To  relieve  this  young  Burnham 
acted  as  a  mounted  messenger.  Often  he  was 
in  the  saddle  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hours,  and 
even  in  a  land  where  every  one  rode  well,  he 
gained  local  fame  as  a  hard  rider.  In  a  few 

years  a  kind  uncle  offered  to  Mrs.  Burnham 

197 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

and  a  younger  brother  a  home  in  the  East, 
but  at  the  last  moment  Fred  refused  to  go 
with  them,  and  chose  to  make  his  own  way. 
He  was  then  thirteen  years  old,  and  he  had 
determined  to  be  a  scout. 

At  that  particular  age  many  boys  have  set 
forth  determined  to  be  scouts,  and  are  gener- 
ally brought  home  the  next  morning  by  a 
policeman.  But  Burnham,  having  turned  his 
back  on  the  cities,  did  not  repent.  He  wan- 
dered over  Mexico,  Arizona,  California.  He 
met  Indians,  bandits,  prospectors,  hunters  of 
all  kinds  of  big  game ;  and  finally  a  scout  who, 
under  General  Taylor,  had  served  in  the  Mex- 
ican War.  This  man  took  a  liking  to  the  boy ; 
and  his  influence  upon  him  was  marked  and 
for  his  good.  He  was  an  educated  man,  and 
had  carried  into  the  wilderness  a  few  books. 
In  the  cabin  of  this  man  Burnham  read  "  The 
Conquest  of  Mexico  and  Peru,"  by  Prescott, 
the  lives  of  Hannibal  and  Cyrus  the  Great,  of 
Livingstone,  the  explorer,  which  first  set  his 
thoughts  toward  Africa,  and  many  technical 
works  on  the  strategy  and  tactics  of  war.  He 
had  no  experience  of  military  operations  on  a 

large  scale,  but,  with  the  aid  of  the  veteran  of 

198 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

the  Mexican  War,  with  corn-cobs  in  the  sand 
in  front  of  the  cabin  door,  he  constructed  forts 
and  made  trenches,  redoubts,  and  traverses. 
In  Burnham's  life  this  seems  to  have  been  a 
very  happy  period.  The  big  game  he  hunted 
and  killed  he  sold  for  a  few  dollars  to  the  men 
of  Nadean's  freight  outfits,  which  in  those 
days  hauled  bullion  from  Cerro  Gordo  for  the 
man  who  is  now  Senator  Jones  of  Nevada. 

At  nineteen  Burnham  decided  that  there 
were  things  in  this  world  he  should  know  that 
could  not  be  gleaned  from  the  earth,  trees,  and 
sky;  and  with  the  few  dollars  he  had  saved  he 
came  East.  The  visit  apparently  was  not  a 
success.  The  atmosphere  of  the  town  in  which 
he  went  to  school  was  strictly  Puritanical,  and 
the  townspeople  much  given  to  religious  dis- 
cussion. The  son  of  the  pioneer  missionary 
found  himself  unable  to  subscribe  to  the  for- 
mulas which  to  the  others  seemed  so  essen- 
tial, and  he  returned  to  the  West  with  the 
most  bitter  feelings,  which  lasted  until  he  was 
twenty-one. 

"  It  seems  strange  now/'  he  once  said  to  me, 
"but  in  those  times  religious  questions  were 

as  much  a  part  of  our  daily  life  as  to-day  are 

199 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

automobiles,  the  Standard  Oil  and  the  insur- 
ance scandals,  and  when  I  went  West  I  was 
in  an  unhappy,  doubting  frame  of  mind.  The 
trouble  was  I  had  no  moral  anchors;  the  old 
ones  father  had  given  me  were  gone,  and  the 
time  for  acquiring  new  ones  had  not  arrived." 
This  bitterness  of  heart,  or  this  disappoint- 
ment, or  whatever  the  state  of  mind  was  that 
the  dogmas  of  the  New  England  town  had  in- 
spired in  the  boy  from  the  prairie,  made  him 
reckless.  For  the  life  he  was  to  lead  this  was 
not  a  handicap.  Even  as  a  lad,  in  a  land-grant 
war  in  California,  he  had  been  under  gunfire, 
and  for  the  next  fifteen  years  he  led  a  life  of 
danger  and  of  daring;  and  studied  in  a  school 
of  experience  than  which,  for  a  scout,  if  his 
life  be  spared,  there  can  be  none  better.  Burn- 
ham  came  out  of  it  a  quiet,  manly,  gentle  man. 
In  those  fifteen  years  he  roved  the  West  from 
the  Great  Divide  to  Mexico.  He  fought  the 
Apache  Indians  for  the  possession  of  water- 
holes,  he  guarded  bullion  on  stage-coaches,  for 
days  rode  in  pursuit  of  Mexican  bandits  and 
American  horse  thieves,  took  part  in  county- 
seat  fights,  in  rustler  wars,  in  cattle  wars;  he 
was  cowboy,  miner,  deputy-sheriff,  and  in  time 

200 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

throughout  the  West  the  name  of  "  Fred " 
Burnham  became  significant  and  familiar. 

During  this  period  Burnham  was  true  to  his 
boyhood  ideal  of  becoming  a  scout.  It  was  not 
enough  that  by  merely  living  the  life  around 
him  he  was  being  educated  for  it.  He  daily 
practised  and  rehearsed  those  things  which 
some  day  might  mean  to  himself  and  others 
the  difference  between  life  and  death.  To  im- 
prove his  sense  of  smell  he  gave  up  smoking, 
of  which  he  was  extremely  fond,  nor,  for  the 
same  reason,  does  he  to  this  day  use  tobacco. 
He  accustomed  himself  also  to  go  with  little 
sleep,  and  to  subsist  on  the  least  possible  quan- 
tity of  food.  As  a  deputy-sheriff  this  edu- 
cated faculty  of  not  requiring  sleep  aided  him 
in  many  important  captures.  Sometimes  he 
would  not  strike  the  trail  of  the  bandit  or  "  bad 
man  "  until  the  other  had  several  days  the  start 
of  him.  But  the  end  was  the  same ;  for,  while 
the  murderer  snatched  a  few  hours'  rest  by  the 
trail,  Burnham,  awake  and  in  the  saddle,  would 
be  closing  up  the  miles  between  them. 

That  he  is  a  good  marksman  goes  without 
telling.  At  the  age  of  eight  his  father  gave 
him  a  rifle  of  his  own,  and  at  twelve,  with 

2OI 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

either  a  "  gun  "  or  a  Winchester,  he  was  an 
expert.  He  taught  himself  to  use  a  weapon 
either  in  his  left  or  right  hand  and  to  shoot, 
Indian  fashion,  hanging  by  one  leg  from  his 
pony  and  using  it  as  a  cover,  and  to  turn  in 
the  saddle  and  shoot  behind  him.  I  once  asked 
him  if  he  really  could  shoot  to  the  rear  with  a 
galloping  horse  under  him  and  hit  a  man. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "maybe  not  to  hit  him, 
but  I  can  come  near  enough  to  him  to  make 
him  decide  my  pony's  so  much  faster  than 
his  that  it  really  isn't  worth  while  to  fol- 
low me." 

Besides  perfecting  himself  in  what  he  tol- 
erantly calls  "  tricks "  of  horsemanship  and 
marksmanship,  he  studied  the  signs  of  the  trail, 
forest  and  prairie,  as  a  sailing-master  studies 
the  waves  and  clouds.  The  knowledge  he  gath- 
ers from  inanimate  objects  and  dumb  animals 
seems  little  less  than  miraculous.  And  when 
you  ask  him  how  he  knows  these  things  he 
always  gives  you  a  reason  founded  on  some 
fact  or  habit  of  nature  that  shows  him  to  be 
a  naturalist,  mineralogist,  geologist,  and  bot- 
anist, and  not  merely  a  seventh  son  of  a 
seventh  son. 

202 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

In  South  Africa  he  would  say  to  the  officers : 
"  There  are  a  dozen  Boers  five  miles  ahead  of 
us  riding  Basuto  ponies  at  a  trot,  and  leading 
five  others.  If  we  hurry  we  should  be  able  to 
sight  them  in  an  hour/'  At  first  the  officers 
would  smile,  but  not  after  a  half-hour's  gallop, 
when  they  would  see  ahead  of  them  a  dozen 
Boers  leading  five  ponies.  In  the  early  days 
of  Salem,  Burnham  would  have  been  burned 
as  a  witch. 

When  twenty-three  years  of  age  he  married 
Miss  Blanche  Blick  of  Iowa.  They  had  known 
each  other  from  childhood,  and  her  brothers- 
in-law  have  been  Burnham's  aids  and  compan- 
ions in  every  part  of  Africa  and  the  West. 
Neither  at  the  time  of  their  marriage  nor  since 
did  Mrs.  Burnham  "  lay  a  hand  on  the  bridle 
rein,"  as  is  witnessed  by  the  fact  that  for  nine 
years  after  his  marriage  Burnham  continued 
his  career  as  sheriff,  scout,  mining  prospector. 
And  in  1893,  when  Burnham  and  his  brother- 
in-law,  Ingram,  started  for  South  Africa,  Mrs. 
Burnham  went  with  them,  and  in  every  part 
of  South  Africa  shared  her  husband's  life  of 
travel  and  danger. 

In  making  this  move  across  the  sea,  Burn- 
203 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

ham's  original  idea  was  to  look  for  gold  in 
the  territory  owned  by  the  German  East  Afri- 
can Company.  But  as  in  Rhodesia  the  first 
Matabele  uprising  had  broken  out,  he  con- 
tinued on  down  the  coast,  and  volunteered  for 
that  campaign.  This  was  the  real  beginning 
of  his  fortunes.  The  "  war  "  was  not  unlike 
the  Indian  fighting  of  his  early  days,  and  al- 
though the  country  was  new  to  him,  with  the 
kind  of  warfare  then  being  waged  between  the 
Kaffirs  under  King  Lobengula  and  the  white 
settlers  of  the  British  South  Africa  Company, 
the  chartered  company  of  Cecil  Rhodes,  he 
was  intimately  familiar. 

It  does  not  take  big  men  long  to  recognize 
other  big  men,  and  Burnham's  remarkable 
work  as  a  scout  at  once  brought  him  to  the 
notice  of  Rhodes  and  Dr.  Jameson,  who  was 
personally  conducting  the  campaign.  The  war 
was  their  own  private  war,  and  to  them,  at 
such  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  their  settlement, 
a  man  like  Burnham  was  invaluable. 

The  chief  incident  of  this  campaign,  the 
fame  of  which  rang  over  all  Great  Britain  and 
her  colonies,  was  the  gallant  but  hopeless  stand 

made  by  Major  Alan  Wilson  and  his  patrol  of 

204 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

thirty-four  men.  It  was  Burnham's  attempt 
to  save  these  men  that  made  him  known  from 
Buluwayo  to  Cape  Town. 

King  Lobengula  and  his  warriors  were 
halted  on  one  bank  of  the  Shangani  River  and 
on  the  other  Major  Forbes,  with  a  picked  force 
of  three  hundred  men,  was  coming  up  in  pur- 
suit. Although  at  the  moment  he  did  not 
know  it,  he  also  was  being  pursued  by  a  force 
of  Matabeles,  who  were  gradually  surround- 
ing him.  At  nightfall  Major  Wilson  and  a 
patrol  of  twelve  men,  with  Burnham  and  his 
brother-in-law,  Ingram,  acting  as  scouts,  were 
ordered  to  make  a  dash  into  the  camp  of  Lo- 
bengula and,  if  possible,  in  the  confusion  of 
their  sudden  attack,  and  under  cover  of  a  ter- 
rific thunder-storm  that  was  raging,  bring  him 
back  a  prisoner. 

With  the  king  in  their  hands  the  white  men 
believed  the  rebellion  would  collapse.  To  the 
number  of  three  thousand  the  Matabeles  were 
sleeping  in  a  succession  of  camps,  through 
which  the  fourteen  men  rode  at  a  gallop.  But 
in  the  darkness  it  was  difficult  to  distinguish 
the  trek  wagon  of  the  king,  and  by  the  time 

they  found  his  laager  the  Matabeles  from  the 

205 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

other  camps  through  which  they  had  ridden 
had  given  the  alarm.  Through  the  under- 
brush from  every  side  the  enemy,  armed  with 
assegai  and  elephant  guns,  charged  toward 
them  and  spread  out  to  cut  off  their  re- 
treat. 

At  a  distance  of  about  seven  hundred  yards 
from  the  camps  there  was  a  giant  ant-hill,  and 
the  patrol  rode  toward  it.  By  the  aid  of  the 
lightning  flashes  they  made  their  way  through 
a  dripping  wood  and  over  soil  which  the  rain 
had  turned  into  thick,  black  mud.  When  the 
party  drew  rein  at  the  ant-hill  it  was  found 
that  of  the  fourteen  three  were  missing.  As 
the  official  scout  of  the  patrol  and  the  only  one 
who  could  see  in  the  dark,  Wilson  ordered 
Burnham  back  to  find  them.  Burnham  said 
he  could  do  so  only  by  feeling  the  hoof-prints 
in  the  mud  and  that  he  would  like  some  one 
with  him  to  lead  his  pony.  Wilson  said  he 
would  lead  it.  With  his  fingers  Burnham  fol- 
lowed the  trail  of  the  eleven  horses  to  where, 
at  right  angles,  the  hoof-prints  of  the  three 
others  separated  from  it,  and  so  came  upon 
the  three  men.  Still,  with  nothing  but  the 

mud  of  the  jungle  to  guide  him,  he  brought 

206 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

them  back  to  their  comrades.  It  was  this  feat 
that  established  his  reputation  among  British, 
Boers,  and  black  men  in  South  Africa. 

Throughout  the  night  the  men  of  the  patrol 
lay  in  the  mud  holding  the  reins  of  their 
horses.  In  the  jungle  about  them,  they  could 
hear  the  enemy  splashing  through  the  mud, 
and  the  swishing  sound  of  the  branches  as 
they  swept  back  into  place.  It  was  still  rain- 
ing. Just  before  the  dawn  there  came  the 
sounds  of  voices  and  the  welcome  clatter  of 
accoutrements.  The  men  of  the  patrol,  be- 
lieving the  column  had  joined  them,  sprang  up 
rejoicing,  but  it  was  only  a  second  patrol,  un- 
der Captain  Borrow,  who  had  been  sent  for- 
ward with  twenty  men  as  reinforcements. 
They  had  come  in  time  to  share  in  a  glorious 
immortality.  No  sooner  had  these  men  joined 
than  the  Kaffirs  began  the  attack;  and  the 
white  men  at  once  learned  that  they  were 
trapped  in  a  complete  circle  of  the  enemy. 
Hidden  by  the  trees,  the  Kaffirs  fired  point- 
blank,  and  in  a  very  little  time  half  of  Wilson's 
force  was  killed  or  wounded.  As  the  horses 
were  shot  down  the  men  used  them  for  breast- 
works. There  was  no  other  shelter.  Wilson 

207 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF    FORTUNE 

called  Burnham  to  him  and  told  him  he  must 
try  and  get  through  the  lines  of  the  enemy  to 
Forbes. 

'  Tell  him  to  come  up  at  once,"  he  said ;  "  we 
are  nearly  finished."  He  detailed  a  trooper 
named  Gooding  and  Ingram  to  accompany 
Burnham.  "  One  of  you  may  get  through," 
he  said.  Gooding  was  but  lately  out  from 
London,  and  knew  nothing  of  scouting,  so 
Burnham  and  Ingram  warned  him,  whether 
he  saw  the  reason  for  it  or  not,  to  act  exactly 
as  they  did.  The  three  men  had  barely  left 
the  others  before  the  enemy  sprang  at  them 
with  their  spears.  In  five  minutes  they  were 
being  fired  at  from  every  bush.  Then  fol- 
lowed a  remarkable  ride,  in  which  Burnham 
called  to  his  aid  all  he  had  learned  in  thirty 
years  of  border  warfare.  As  the  enemy 
rushed  after  them,  the  three  doubled  on  their 
tracks,  rode  in  triple  loops,  hid  in  dongas  to 
breathe  their  horses;  and  to  scatter  their  pur- 
suers, separated,  joined  again,  and  again  sepa- 
rated. The  enemy  followed  them  to  the  very 
bank  of  the  river,  where,  finding  the  "  drift " 
covered  with  the  swollen  waters,  they  were 

forced  to  swim.    They  reached  the  other  bank 

208 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

only  to  find  Forbes  hotly  engaged  with  another 
force  of  the  Matabeles. 

"  I  have  been  sent  for  reinforcements," 
Burnham  said  to  Forbes,  "  but  I  believe  we 
are  the  only  survivors  of  that  party."  Forbes 
himself  was  too  hard  pressed  to  give  help  to 
Wilson,  and  Burnham,  his  errand  over,  took 
his  place  in  the  column,  and  began  firing  upon 
the  new  enemy. 

Six  weeks  later  the  bodies  of  Wilson's  patrol 
were  found  lying  in  a  circle.  Each  of  them 
had  been  shot  many  times.  A  son  of  Loben- 
gula,  who  witnessed  their  extermination,  and 
who  in  Buluwayo  had  often  heard  the  English- 
men sing  their  national  anthem,  told  how  the 
five  men  who  were  the  last  to  die  stood  up  and, 
swinging  their  hats  defiantly,  sang  "  God  Save 
the  Queen."  The  incident  will  long  be  re- 
corded in  song  and  story;  and  in  London  was 
reproduced  in  two  theatres,  in  each  of  which 
the  man  who  played  "  Burnham,  the  American 
Scout,"  as  he  rode  off  for  reinforcements,  was 
as  loudly  cheered  by  those  in  the  audience  as 
by  those  on  the  stage. 

Hensman,  in  his  "  History  of  Rhodesia," 

says :  "  One  hardly  knows  which  to  most  ad- 

209 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

mire,  the  men  who  went  on  this  dangerous 
errand,  through  brush  swarming  with  natives, 
or  those  who  remained  behind  battling  against 
overwhelming  odds." 

For  his  help  in  this  war  the  Chartered  Com- 
pany presented  Burnham  with  the  campaign 
medal,  a  gold  watch  engraved  with  words  of 
appreciation;  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Cecil 
Rhodes  gave  him,  Ingram,  and  the  Hon.  Mau- 
rice Clifford,  jointly,  a  tract  of  land  of  three 
hundred  square  acres. 

After  this  campaign  Burnham  led  an  expe- 
dition of  ten  white  men  and  seventy  Kaffirs 
north  of  the  Zambesi  River  to  explore  Ba- 
rotzeland  and  other  regions  to  the  north  of 
Mashonaland,  and  to  establish  the  boundaries 
of  the  concession  given  him,  Ingram,  and 
Clifford. 

In  order  to  protect  Burnham  on  the  march 
the  Chartered  Company  signed  a  treaty  with 
the  native  king  of  the  country  through  which 
he  wished  to  travel,  by  which  the  king  gave 
him  permission  to  pass  freely  and  guaranteed 
him  against  attack. 

But  Latea,  the  son  of  the  king,  refused  to 
recognize  the  treaty  and  sent  his  young  men 


210 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

in  great  number  to  surround  Burnham's  camp. 
Burnham  had  been  instructed  to  avoid  a  fight, 
and  was  torn  between  his  desire  to  obey  the 
Chartered  Company  and  to  prevent  a  massacre. 
He  decided  to  make  it  a  sacrifice  either  of  him- 
self or  of  Latea.  As  soon  as  night  fell,  with 
only  three  companions  and  a  missionary  to 
act  as  a  witness  of  what  occurred,  he  slipped 
through  the  lines  of  Latea's  men,  and,  kicking 
down  the  fence  around  the  prince's  hut,  sud- 
denly appeared  before  him  and  covered  him 
with  his  rifle. 

"  Is  it  peace  or  war  ?  "  Burnham  asked.  "  I 
have  the  king  your  father's  guarantee  of  pro- 
tection, but  your  men  surround  us.  I  have 
told  my  people  if  they  hear  shots  to  open  fire. 
We  may  all  be  killed,  but  you  will  be  the  first 
to  die." 

The  missionary  also  spoke  urging  Latea  to 
abide  by  the  treaty.  Burnham  says  the  prince 
seemed  much  more  impressed  by  the  argu- 
ments of  the  missionary  than  by  the  fact  that 
he  still  was  covered  by  Burnham's  rifle. 
Whichever  argument  moved  him,  he  called  off 
his  warriors.  On  this  expedition  Burnham 
discovered  the  ruins  of  great  granite  struct- 

211 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

ures  fifteen  feet  wide,  and  made  entirely  with- 
out mortar.  They  were  of  a  period  dating 
before  the  Phoenicians.  He  also  sought  out 
the  ruins  described  to  him  by  F.  C.  Selous,  the 
famous  hunter,  and  by  Rider  Haggard  as 
King  Solomon's  Mines.  Much  to  the  delight 
of  Mr.  Haggard,  he  brought  back  for  him 
from  the  mines  of  his  imagination  real  gold 
ornaments  and  a  real  gold  bar. 

On  this  same  expedition,  which  lasted  five 
months,  Burnham  endured  one  of  the  severest 
hardships  of  his  life.  Alone  with  ten  Kaffir 
boys,  he  started  on  a  week's  journey  across 
the  dried-up  basin  of  what  once  had  been  a 
great  lake.  Water  was  carried  in  goat-skins 
on  the  heads  of  the  bearers.  The  boys,  find- 
ing the  bags  an  unwieldy  burden,  and  believ- 
ing, with  the  happy  optimism  of  their  race, 
that  Burnham's  warnings  were  needless,  and 
that  at  a  stream  they  soon  could  refill  the  bags, 
emptied  the  water  on  the  ground. 

The  tortures  that  followed  this  wanton 
waste  were  terrible.  Five  of  the  boys  died, 
and  after  several  days,  when  Burnham  found 
water  in  abundance,  the  tongues  of  the  others 
were  so  swollen  that  their  jaws  could  not  meet. 


212 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

On  this  trip  Burnham  passed  through  a 
region  ravaged  by  the  "  sleeping  sickness/' 
where  his  nostrils  were  never  free  from  the 
stench  of  dead  bodies,  where  in  some  of  the 
villages,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  the  hyenas  were 
mangy  with  overeating,  and  the  buzzards  so 
gorged  they  could  not  move  out  of  our  way." 
From  this  expedition  he  brought  back  many 
ornaments  of  gold  manufactured  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  made  several  valuable  maps 
of  hitherto  uncharted  regions.  It  was  in  rec- 
ognition of  the  information  gathered  by  him 
on  this  trip  that  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society. 

He  returned  to  Rhodesia  in  time  to  take 
part  in  the  second  Matabele  rebellion.  This 
was  in  1896.  By  now  Burnham  was  a  very 
prominent  member  of  the  "  vortrekers  "  and 
pioneers  at  Buluwayo,  and  Sir  Frederick  Car- 
rington,  who  was  in  command  of  the  forces, 
attached  him  to  his  staff.  This  second  out- 
break was  a  more  serious  uprising  than  the 
one  of  1893,  and  as  it  was  evident  the  forces 
of  the  Chartered  Company  could  not  handle  it, 
imperial  troops  were  sent  to  assist  them.  But 

with  even  their  aid  the  war  dragged  on  until 

213 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

it  threatened  to  last  to  the  rainy  season,  when 
the  troops  must  have  gone  into  winter  quar- 
ters. Had  they  done  so,  the  cost  of  keeping 
them  would  have  fallen  on  the  Chartered  Com- 
pany, already  a  sufferer  in  pocket  from  the 
ravages  of  the  rinderpest  and  the  expenses  of 
the  investigation  which  followed  the  Jameson 
raid. 

Accordingly,  Carrington  looked  about  for 
some  measure  by  which  he  could  bring  the 
war  to  an  immediate  end. 

It  was  suggested  to  him  by  a  young  Colo- 
nial, named  Armstrong,  the  Commissioner  of 
the  district,  that  this  could  be  done  by  de- 
stroying the  "god/'  or  high  priest,  Um- 
limo,  who  was  the  chief  inspiration  of  the 
rebellion. 

This  high  priest  had  incited  the  rebels  to  a 
general  massacre  of  women  and  children,  and 
had  given  them  confidence  by  promising  to 
strike  the  white  soldiers  blind  and  to  turn  their 
bullets  into  water.  Armstrong  had  discovered 
the  secret  hiding-place  of  Umlimo,  and  Car- 
rington ordered  Burnham  to  penetrate  the  ene- 
my's lines,  find  the  god,  capture  him,  and  if 
that  were  not  possible  to  destroy  him. 

214 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

The  adventure  was  a  most  desperate  one. 
Umlimo  was  secreted  in  a  cave  on  the  top  of 
a  huge  kopje.  At  the  base  of  this  was  a  vil- 
lage where  were  gathered  two  regiments,  of 
a  thousand  men  each,  of  his  fighting  men. 

For  miles  around  this  village  the  country 
was  patrolled  by  roving  bands  of  the  enemy. 

Against  a  white  man  reaching  the  cave  and 
returning,  the  chances  were  a  hundred  to  one, 
and  the  difficulties  of  the  journey  are  illus- 
trated by  the  fact  that  Burnham  and  Arm- 
strong were  unable  to  move  faster  than  at  the 
rate  of  a  mile  an  hour.  In  making  the  last 
mile  they  consumed  three  hours.  When  they 
reached  the  base  of  the  kopje  in  which  Umlimo 
was  hiding,  they  concealed  their  ponies  in  a 
clump  of  bushes,  and  on  hands  and  knees 
began  the  ascent. 

Directly  below  them  lay  the  village,  so  close 
that  they  could  smell  the  odors  of  cooking 
from  the  huts,  and  hear,  rising  drowsily  on 
the  hot,  noonday  air,  voices  of  the  warriors. 
For  minutes  at  a  time  they  lay  as  motionless 
as  the  granite  bowlders  around  or  squirmed 
and  crawled  over  loose  stones  which  a  miss  of 
hand  or  knee  would  have  dislodged  and  sent 

215 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

clattering  into  the  village.  After  an  hour 
of  this  tortuous  climbing  the  cave  suddenly 
opened  before  them,  and  they  beheld  Umlimo. 
Burnham  recognized  that  to  take  him  alive 
from  his  stronghold  was  an  impossibility,  and 
that  even  they  themselves  would  leave  the 
place  was  equally  doubtful.  So,  obeying  or- 
ders, he  fired,  killing  the  man  who  had  boasted 
he  would  turn  the  bullets  of  his  enemies  into 
water.  The  echo  of  the  shot  aroused  the  vil- 
lage as  would  a  stone  hurled  into  an  ant-heap. 
In  an  instant  the  veldt  below  was  black  with 
running  men,  and  as,  concealment  being  no 
longer  possible,  the  white  men  rose  to  fly  a 
great  shout  of  anger  told  them  they  were  dis- 
covered. At  the  same  moment  two  women, 
returning  from  a  stream  where  they  had  gone 
for  water,  saw  the  ponies,  and  ran  screaming 
to  give  the  alarm.  The  race  that  followed 
lasted  two  hours,  for  so  quickly  did  the  Kaffirs 
spread  out  on  every  side  that  it  was  impossible 
for  Burnham  to  gain  ground  in  any  one  direc- 
tion, and  he  was  forced  to  dodge,  turn,  and 
double.  At  one  time  the  white  men  were 
driven  back  to  the  very  kopje  from  which  the 

race  had  started. 

216 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

But  in  the  end  they  evaded  assegai  and  gun- 
fire, and  in  safety  reached  Buluwayo.  This 
exploit  was  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  bring- 
ing the  war  to  a  close.  The  Matabeles,  finding 
their  leader  was  only  a  mortal  like  themselves, 
and  so  could  not,  as  he  had  promised,  bring 
miracles  to  their  aid,  lost  heart,  and  when 
Cecil  Rhodes  in  person  made  overtures  of 
peace,  his  terms  were  accepted.  During  the 
hard  days  of  the  siege,  when  rations  were  few 
and  bad,  Burnham's  little  girl,  who  had  been 
the  first  white  child  born  in  Buluwayo,  died 
of  fever  and  lack  of  proper  food.  This  with 
other  causes  led  him  to  leave  Rhodesia  and 
return  to  California.  It  is  possible  he  then 
thought  he  had  forever  turned  his  back  on 
South  Africa,  but,  though  he  himself  had 
departed,  the  impression  he  had  made  there 
remained  behind  him. 

Burnham  did  not  rest  long  in  California. 
In  Alaska  the  hunt  for  gold  had  just  begun, 
and,  the  old  restlessness  seizing  him,  he  left 
Pasadena  and  her  blue  skies,  tropical  plants, 
and  trolley-car  strikes  for  the  new  raw  land 
of  the  Klondike. 

With  Burnham  it  has  always  been  the  place 
217 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

that  is  being  made,  not  the  place  in  being,  that 
attracts.  He  has  helped  to  make  straight  the 
ways  of  several  great  communities — Arizona, 
California,  Rhodesia,  Alaska,  and  Uganda. 
As  he  once  said :  "  It  is  the  constructive  side 
of  frontier  life  that  most  appeals  to  me,  the 
building  up  of  a  country,  where  you  see  the 
persistent  drive  and  force  of  the  white  man; 
when  the  place  is  finally  settled  I  don't  seem 
to  enjoy  it  very  long/' 

In  Alaska  he  did  much  prospecting,  and, 
with  a  sled  and  only  two  dogs,  for  twenty-four 
days  made  one  long  fight  against  snow  and 
ice,  covering  six  hundred  miles.  In  mining 
in  Alaska  he  succeeded  well,  but  against  the 
country  he  holds  a  constant  grudge,  because  it 
kept  him  out  of  the  fight  with  Spain.  When 
war  was  declared  he  was  in  the  wilds  and  knew 
nothing  of  it,  and  though  on  his  return  to 
civilization  he  telegraphed  Colonel  Roosevelt 
volunteering  for  the  Rough  Riders,  and  at 
once  started  south,  by  the  time  he  had  reached 
Seattle  the  war  was  over. 

Several  times  has  he  spoken  to  me  of  how 
bitterly  he  regretted  missing  this  chance  to 

officially  fight  for  his  country.     That  he  had 

218 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

twice  served  with  English  forces  made  him  the 
more  keen  to  show  his  loyalty  to  his  own 
people. 

That  he  would  have  been  given  a  commis- 
sion in  the  Rough  Riders  seems  evident  from 
the  opinion  President  Roosevelt  has  publicly 
expressed  of  him. 

"  I  know  Burnham,"  the  President  wrote  in 
1901.  "  He  is  a  scout  and  a  hunter  of  courage 
and  ability,  a  man  totally  without  fear,  a  sure 
shot,  and  a  fighter.  He  is  the  ideal  scout,  and 
when  enlisted  in  the  military  service  of  any 
country  he  is  bound  to  be  of  the  greatest 
benefit." 

The  truth  of  this  Burnham  was  soon  to 
prove. 

In  1899  he  had  returned  to  the  Klondike, 
and  in  January  of  1900  had  been  six  months 
in  Skagway.  In  that  same  month  Lord  Rob- 
erts sailed  for  Cape  Town  to  take  command 
of  the  army,  and  with  him  on  his  staff  was 
Burnham's  former  commander,  Sir  Frederick, 
now  Lord,  Carrington.  One  night  as  the  ship 
was  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  Carrington  was 
talking  of  Burnham  and  giving  instances  of 

his  marvellous  powers  as  a  "  tracker." 

219 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

"  He  is  the  best  scout  we  ever  had  in  South 
Africa !  "  Carrington  declared. 

"  Then  why  don't  we  get  him  back  there?  " 
said  Roberts. 

What  followed  is  well  known. 

From  Gibraltar  a  cable  was  sent  to  Skag- 
way,  offering  Burnham  the  position,  created 
especially  for  him,  of  chief  of  scouts  of  the 
British  army  in  the  field. 

Probably  never  before  in  the  history  of  wars 
has  one  nation  paid  so  pleasant  a  tribute  to  the 
abilities  of  a  man  of  another  nation. 

The  sequel  is  interesting.  The  cablegram 
reached  Skagway  by  the  steamer  City  of  Seat- 
tle. The  purser  left  it  at  the  post-office,  and 
until  two  hours  and  a  half  before  the  steamer 
was  listed  to  start  on  her  return  trip,  there  it 
lay.  Then  Burnham,  in  asking  for  his  mail, 
received  it.  In  two  hours  and  a  half  he  had 
his  family,  himself,  and  his  belongings  on 
board  the  steamer,  and  had  started  on  his  half- 
around-the-world  journey  from  Alaska  to  Cape 
Town. 

A  Skagway  paper  of  January  5,  1900,  pub- 
lished the  day  after  Burnham  sailed,  throws  a 
side  light  on  his  character.  After  telling  of 

220 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

his  hasty  departure  the  day  before,  and  of  the 
high  compliment  that  had  been  paid  to  "  a 
prominent  Skagwayan,"  it  adds:  "Although 
Mr.  Burnham  has  lived  in  Skagway  since  last 
August,  and  has  been  North  for  many  months, 
he  has  said  little  of  his  past,  and  few  have 
known  that  he  is  the  man  famous  over  the 
world  as  '  the  American  scout '  of  the  Mata- 
bele  wars." 

Many  a  man  who  went  to  the  Klondike  did 
not,  for  reasons  best  known  to  himself,  talk 
about  his  past.  But  it  is  characteristic  of 
Burnham  that,  though  he  lived  there  two 
years,  his  associates  did  not  know,  until  the 
British  Government  snatched  him  from  among 
them,  that  he  had  not  always  been  a  prospector 
like  themselves. 

I  was  on  the  same  ship  that  carried  Burn- 
ham  the  latter  half  of  his  journey,  from  South- 
ampton to  Cape  Town,  and  every  night  for 
seventeen  nights  was  one  of  a  group  of  men 
who  shot  questions  at  him.  And  it  was  inter- 
esting to  see  a  fellow-countryman  one  had 
heard  praised  so  highly  so  completely  make 
good.  It  was  not  as  though  he  had  a  credu- 
lous audience  of  commercial  tourists.  Among 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF    FORTUNE 

the  officers  who  each  evening  gathered  around 
him  were  Colonel  Gallilet  of  the  Egyptian  cav- 
alry, Captain  Frazer  commanding  the  Scotch 
Gillies,  Captain  Mackie  of  Lord  Roberta's 
staff,  each  of  whom  was  later  killed  in  action ; 
Colonel  Sir  Charles  Hunter  of  the  Royal 
Rifles,  Major  Bagot,  Major  Lord  Dudley,  and 
Captain  Lord  Valentia.  Each  of  these  had 
either  held  command  in  border  fights  in  India 
or  the  Sudan  or  had  hunted  big  game,  and  the 
questions  each  asked  were  the  outcome  of  his 
own  experience  and  observation. 

Not  for  a  single  evening  could  a  faker  have 
submitted  to  the  midnight  examination  through 
which  they  put  Burnham  and  not  have  exposed 
his  ignorance.  They  wanted  to  know  what 
difference  there  is  in  a  column  of  dust  raised 
by  cavalry  and  by  trek  wagons,  how  to  tell 
whether  a  horse  that  has  passed  was  going  at 
a  trot  or  a  gallop,  the  way  to  throw  a  diamond 
hitch,  how  to  make  a  fire  without  at  the  same 
time  making  a  target  of  yourself,  how — why — 
what — and  how? 

And  what  made  us  most  admire  Burnham 
was  that  when  he  did  not  know  he  at  once 
said  so. 


222 


MAJOR   BURNHAM 

Within  two  nights  he  had  us  so  absolutely 
at  his  mercy  that  we  would  have  followed  him 
anywhere;  anything  he  chose  to  tell  us,  we 
would  have  accepted.  We  were  ready  to  be- 
lieve in  flying  foxes,  flying  squirrels,  that  wild 
turkeys  dance  quadrilles — even  that  you  must 
never  sleep  in  the  moonlight.  Had  he  de- 
manded :  "  Do  you  believe  in  vampires  ?  "  we 
would  have  shouted  "  Yes."  To  ask  that  a 
scout  should  on  an  ocean  steamer  prove  his 
ability  was  certainly  placing  him  under  a  se- 
vere handicap. 

As  one  of  the  British  officers  said :  "  It's 
about  as  fair  a  game  as  though  we  planted 
the  captain  of  this  ship  in  the  Sahara  Desert, 
and  told  him  to  prove  he  could  run  a  ten- 
thousand-ton  liner." 

Burnham  continued  with  Lord  Roberts  to 
the  fall  of  Pretoria,  when  he  was  invalided 
home. 

During  the  advance  north  he  was  a  hundred 
times  inside  the  Boer  laagers,  keeping  Head- 
quarters Staff  daily  informed  of  the  enemy's 
movements;  was  twice  captured  and  twice 
escaped. 

He  was  first  captured  while  trying  to  warn 
223 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

the  British  from  the  fatal  drift  at  Thaba'nchu. 
When  reconnoitring  alone  in  the  morning 
mist  he  came  upon  the  Boers  hiding  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  toward  which  the  English 
were  even  then  advancing.  The  Boers  were 
moving  all  about  him,  and  cut  him  off  from 
his  own  side.  He  had  to  choose  between  aban- 
doning the  English  to  the  trap  or  signalling 
to  them,  and  so  exposing  himself  to  capture. 
With  the  red  kerchief  the  scouts  carried  for 
that  purpose,  he  wigwagged  to  the  approach- 
ing soldiers  to  turn  back,  that  the  enemy  were 
awaiting  them.  But  the  column,  which  was 
without  an  advance  guard,  paid  no  attention 
to  his  signals  and  plodded  steadily  on  into  the 
ambush,  while  Burnham  was  at  once  made 
prisoner.  In  the  fight  that  followed  he  pre- 
tended to  receive  a  wound  in  the  knee  and 
bound  it  so  elaborately  that  not  even  a  surgeon 
would  have  disturbed  the  carefully  arranged 
bandages.  Limping  heavily  and  groaning  with 
pain,  he  was  placed  in  a  trek  wagon  with  the 
officers  who  really  were  wounded,  and  who,  in 
consequence,  were  not  closely  guarded.  Burn- 
ham  told  them  who  he  was  and,  as  he  intended 

to  escape,  offered  to  take  back  to  head-quarters 

224 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

their  names  or  any  messages  they  might  wish 
to  send  to  their  people.  As  twenty  yards  be- 
hind the  wagon  in  which  they  lay  was  a 
mounted  guard,  the  officers  told  him  escape 
was  impossible.  He  proved  otherwise.  The 
trek  wagon  was  drawn  by  sixteen  oxen  and 
driven  by  a  Kaffir  boy.  Later  in  the  evening, 
but  while  it  still  was  moonlight,  the  boy  de- 
scended from  his  seat  and  ran  forward  to  be- 
labor the  first  spans  of  oxen.  This  was  the 
opportunity  for  which  Burnham  had  been 
waiting. 

Slipping  quickly  over  the  driver's  seat,  he 
dropped  between  the  two  "  wheelers  "  to  the 
disselboom,  or  tongue,  of  the  trek  wagon. 
From  this  he  lowered  himself  and  fell  between 
the  legs  of  the  oxen  on  his  back  in  the  road. 
In  an  instant  the  body  of  the  wagon  had 
passed  over  him,  and  while  the  dust  still 
hung  above  the  trail  he  rolled  rapidly  over 
into  the  ditch  at  the  side  of  the  road  and  lay 
motionless. 

It  was  four  days  before  he  was  able  to  re- 
enter  the  British  lines,  during  which  time 
he  had  been  lying  in  the  open  veldt,  and 

had  subsisted  on  one  biscuit  and  two  hand- 

225 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

fuls  of  "mealies,"  or  what  we  call  Indian 
corn. 

Another  time  when  out  scouting  he  and  his 
Kaffir  boy  while  on  foot  were  "  jumped  "  by 
a  Boer  commando  and  forced  to  hide  in  two 
great  ant-hills.  The  Boers  went  into  camp  on 
every  side  of  them,  and  for  two  days,  unknown 
to  themselves,  held  Burnham  a  prisoner.  Only 
at  night  did  he  and  the  Cape  boy  dare  to  crawl 
out  to  breathe  fresh  air  and  to  eat  the  food 
tablets  they  carried  in  their  pockets.  On  five 
occasions  was  Burnham  sent  into  the  Boer 
lines  with  dynamite  cartridges  to  blow  up  the 
railroad  over  which  the  enemy  was  receiving 
supplies  and  ammunition.  One  of  these  expe- 
ditions nearly  ended  his  life. 

On  June  2,  1901,  while  trying  by  night  to 
blow  up  the  line  between  Pretoria  and  Delagoa 
Bay,  he  was  surrounded  by  a  party  of  Boers 
and  could  save  himself  only  by  instant  flight. 
He  threw  himself  Indian  fashion  along  the 
back  of  his  pony,  and  had  all  but  got  away 
when  a  bullet  caught  the  horse  and,  without 
even  faltering  in  its  stride,  it  crashed  to  the 
ground  dead,  crushing  Burnham  beneath  it 

and  knocking  him  senseless.    He  continued  un- 

226 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

conscious  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  when  he 
came  to,  both  friends  and  foes  had  departed. 
Bent  upon  carrying  out  his  orders,  although 
suffering  the  most  acute  agony,  he  crept  back 
to  the  railroad  and  destroyed  it.  Knowing  the 
explosion  would  soon  bring  the  Boers,  on  his 
hands  and  knees  he  crept  to  an  empty  kraal, 
where  for  two  days  and  nights  he  lay  insen- 
sible. At  the  end  of  that  time  he  appreciated 
that  he  was  sinking  and  that  unless  he  found 
aid  he  would  die.  Bancroft  Library 

Accordingly,  still  on  his  hands  and  knees, 
he  set  forth  toward  the  sound  of  distant  firing. 
He  was  indifferent  as  to  whether  it  came  from 
the  enemy  or  his  own  people,  but,  as  it  chanced, 
he  was  picked  up  by  a  patrol  of  General  Dick- 
son's  Brigade,  who  carried  him  to  Pretoria. 
There  the  surgeons  discovered  that  in  his  fall 
he  had  torn  apart  the  muscles  of  the  stomach 
and  burst  a  blood-vessel.  That  his  life  was 
saved,  so  they  informed  him,  was  due  only  to 
the  fact  that  for  three  days  he  had  been  with- 
out food.  Had  he  attempted  to  digest  the  least 
particle  of  the  "  staff  of  life  "  he  would  have 
surely  died.  His  injuries  were  so  serious  that 
he  was  ordered  home. 

227 


REAL  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE 

On  leaving  the  army  he  was  given  such 
hearty  thanks  and  generous  rewards  as  no 
other  American  ever  received  from  the  British 
War  Office.  He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
major,  presented  with  a  large  sum  of  money, 
and  from  Lord  Roberts  received  a  personal 
letter  of  thanks  and  appreciation. 

In  part  the  Field-Marshal  wrote :  "  I  doubt 
if  any  other  man  in  the  force  could  have  suc- 
cessfully carried  out  the  thrilling  enterprises 
in  which  from  time  to  time  you  have  been  en- 
gaged, demanding  as  they  did  the  training  of 
a  lifetime,  combined  with  exceptional  courage, 
caution,  and  powers  of  endurance."  On  his 
arrival  in  England  he  was  commanded  to  dine 
with  the  Queen  and  spend  the  night  at  Os- 
borne,  and  a  few  months  later,  after  her  death, 
King  Edward  created  him  a  member  of  the 
Distinguished  Service  Order,  and  personally 
presented  him  with  the  South  African  medal 
with  five  bars,  and  the  cross  of  the  D.  S.  O. 
While  recovering  his  health  Burnham,  with 
Mrs.  Burnham,  was  "  passed  on  "  by  friends 
he  had  made  in  the  army  from  country  house 
to  country  house;  he  was  made  the  guest  of 

honor  at  city  banquets,  with  the  Duke  of  Rut- 

228 


From  a  copyright  photograph  by  Klliott  &  Fry. 

Major   F.    R.    Burnham. 

Taken  on  the  day  the  King  decorated  him  with  the  D.S.O. 
(Distinguished  Service  Order). 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

land  rode  after  the  Belvoir  hounds,  and  in 
Scotland  made  mild  excursions  after  grouse. 
But  after  six  months  of  convalescence  he 
was  off  again,  this  time  to  the  hinterland  of 
Ashanti,  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  where 
he  went  in  the  interests  of  a  syndicate  to 
investigate  a  concession  for  working  gold 
mines. 

With  his  brother-in-law,  J.  C.  Blick,  he 
marched  and  rowed  twelve  hundred  miles,  and 
explored  the  Volta  River,  at  that  date  so  little 
visited  that  in  one  day's  journey  they  counted 
eleven  hippopotamuses.  In  July,  1901,  he  re- 
turned from  Ashanti,  and  a  few  months  later 
an  unknown  but  enthusiastic  admirer  asked  in 
the  House  of  Commons  if  it  were  true  Major 
Burnham  had  applied  for  the  post  of  Instructor 
of  Scouts  at  Aldershot.  There  is  no  such  post, 
and  Burnham  had  not  applied  for  any  other 
post.  To  the  Times  he  wrote :  "  I  never  have 
thought  myself  competent  to  teach  Britons 
how  to  fight,  or  to  act  as  an  instructor  with 
officers  who  have  fought  in  every  corner  of 
the  world.  The  question  asked  in  Parliament 
was  entirely  without  my  knowledge,  and  I 

deeply  regret  that   it  was   asked."     A  few 

229 


REAL   SOLDIERS   OF   FORTUNE 

months  later,  with  Mrs.  Burnham  and  his 
younger  son,  Bruce,  he  journeyed  to  East 
Africa  as  director  of  the  East  African  Syndi- 
cate. 

During  his  stay  there  the  African  Review 
said  of  him :  "  Should  East  Africa  ever  be- 
come a  possession  for  England  to  be  proud  of, 
she  will  owe  much  of  her  prosperity  to  the 
brave  little  band  that  has  faced  hardships  and 
dangers  in  discovering  her  hidden  resources. 
Major  Burnham  has  chosen  men  from  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  the  United  States,  and  South 
Africa  for  sterling  qualities,  and  they  have 
justified  his  choice.  Not  the  least  like  a  hero 
is  the  retiring,  diffident  little  major  himself, 
though  a  finer  man  for  a  friend  or  a  better 
man  to  serve  under  would  not  be  found  in  the 
five  continents." 

Burnham  explored  a  tract  of  land  larger 
than  Germany,  penetrating  a  thousand  miles 
through  a  country,  never  before  visited  by 
white  men,  to  the  borders  of  the  Congo  Basin. 
With  him  he  had  twenty  white  men  and  five 
hundred  natives.  The  most  interesting  result 
of  the  expedition  was  the  discovery  of  a  lake 

forty-nine  miles  square,  composed  almost  en- 

230 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

tirely  of  pure  carbonate  of  soda,  forming  a 
snowlike  crust  so  thick  that  on  it  the  men  could 
cross  the  lake. 

It  is  the  largest,  and  when  the  railroad 
is  built — the  Uganda  Railroad  is  now  only 
eighty-eight  miles  distant — it  will  be  the  most 
valuable  deposit  of  carbonate  of  soda  ever 
found. 

A  year  ago,  in  the  interests  of  John  Hays 
Hammond,  the  distinguished  mining  engineer 
of  South  Africa  and  this  country,  Burnham 
went  to  Sonora,  Mexico,  to  find  a  buried  city 
and  to  open  up  mines  of  copper  and  silver. 

Besides  seeking  for  mines,  Hammond  and 
Burnham,  with  Gardner  Williams,  another 
American  who  also  made  his  fortune  in  South 
Africa,  are  working  together  on  a  scheme  to 
import  to  this  country  at  their  own  expense 
many  species  of  South  African  deer. 

The  South  African  deer  is  a  hardy  animal 
and  can  live  where  the  American  deer  cannot, 
and  the  idea  in  importing  him  is  to  prevent 
big  game  in  this  country  from  passing  away. 
They  have  asked  Congress  to  set  aside  for 
these  animals  a  portion  of  the  forest  reserve. 

Already  Congress  has  voted  toward  the  plan 

231 


REAL    SOLDIERS    OF   FORTUNE 

$15,000,  and  President  Roosevelt  is  one  of  its 
most  enthusiastic  supporters. 

We  cannot  leave  Burnham  in  better  hands 
than  those  of  Hammond  and  Gardner  Will- 
iams. Than  these  three  men  the  United  States 
has  not  sent  to  British  Africa  any  Americans 
of  whom  she  has  better  reason  to  be  proud. 
Such  men  abroad  do  for  those  at  home  untold 
good.  They  are  the  real  ambassadors  of  their 
country. 

The  last  I  learned  of  Burnham  is  told  in  the 
snapshot  of  him  which  accompanies  this  ar- 
ticle, and  which  shows  him,  barefoot,  in  the 
Yaqui  River,  where  he  has  gone,  perhaps,  to 
conceal  his  trail  from  the  Indians.  It  came  a 
month  ago  in  a  letter  which  said  briefly  that 
when  the  picture  was  snapped  the  expedition 
was  "  trying  to  cool  off."  There  his  narra- 
tive ended.  Promising  as  it  does  adventures 
still  to  come,  it  seems  a  good  place  in  which 
to  leave  him. 

Meanwhile,  you  may  think  of  Mrs.  Burn- 
ham  after  a  year  in  Mexico  keeping  the  house 
open  for  her  husband's  return  to  Pasadena, 
and  of  their  first  son,  Roderick,  studying  wood- 
craft with  his  father,  forestry  with  Gifford 

232 


Latest   Portrait  of  Burnham. 

Taken  this  year  in  Mexico  by  a  member  of  his  expedition  along  the  Yaqui  River. 


MAJOR    BURNHAM 

Pinchot,  and  playing  right  guard  on  the  fresh- 
man team  at  the  University  of  California. 

But  Burnham  himself  we  will  leave  "  cool- 
ing off  "  in  the  Yaqui  River,  maybe,  with 
Indians  hunting  for  him  along  the  banks. 
And  we  need  not  worry  about  him.  We 
know  they  will  not  catch  him. 


233 


BOOKS  BY  RICHARD  HARDING  DAVIS 

PUBLISHED    BY    CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

Real  Soldiers  of  Fortune 

Illustrated.      i2mo,   $1.50  net.      Postage   extra 

The  stories  of  nine  adventurous  spirits  of  our  own  day,  the  true  account 
of  whose  lives  and  experiences  reads  like  the  wildest  romance. 

Farces 

"The  Galloper,"  "The  Dictator"  and  "Miss  Civilization" 

With  eighteen  illustrations  of  scenes  in  the  plays 
8vo,  $1.50   net.     Postage   extra 

These  three  farces  read  even  better  than  they  acted,  and  represent  the 
best  of  Mr.  Davis's  recent  work.  They  are  bound  together  in  an  attractive 
volume,  prettily  illustrated  from  scenes  in  the  plays. 

With  Both  Armies  in  South  Africa 

Profusely  illustrated  from  photographs,     izmo,  $1.50 

"There  is  no  finer  picture  in  recent  literature  than  Mr.  Davis's  of  the 
collapse  of  the  Boer  power." — Boston  Transcript. 

The  Cuban  and  Porto  Rican  Campaigns 

Illustrated  from  photographs  and  drawings  by  eye-witnesses.    iamo,  $1.50 
"  The  most  vivid  and  readable  of  all  the  books  on  the  war." — Boston  Herald. 

Cinderella  and  Other  Stories 

iamo,  $1.00 

"  There  are  five  stories  in  this  well-made  book.  There  is  a  touch  of  human 
nature  throughout  which  brings  the  author's  narrative  skill  and  humor  to  a 
very  high  point  of  literary  art." — The  Congregationalist. 

Gallegher  and  Other  Stories 

I2mo,  $1.00 

"It  is  a  pleasure  to  turn  to  so  crisply  written  and  so  fresh  and  entertaining 
stories." — London  Academy. 

Stories   for   Boys 

Illustrated.     i2mo,   $1.00 

"All  the  stories  have  a  verve  and  fire  and  movement  which  is  just  what 
boys  like." — Boston  Transcript. 


BOOKS  BY  RICHARD  HARDING  DAVIS 

PUBLISHED    BY    CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

The  Bar  Sinister 

With  8  full-page  illustrations  in  color  by  E.  M.  Ashe  and  numerous  mar- 
ginal illustrations.     New  Edition.     Square    I2mo,  $1.00. 

"One  of  the  two  best  dog  stories  written  in  the  United  States." 

—  The  Bookman. 

Captain  Macklin 

His   Memoirs.     With   full-page   illustrations   by  Walter   Appleton   Clark. 

I2mo,  $1.50 

"An  admirable  story,    clear-cut,    brave,  spirited.     It   shows   Mr.    Richard 
Harding  Davis  in  his  maturity," — The  Bookman.1 

Ranson's  Folly 

With  16  full-page  illustrations,      xamo,  $1.50 

"This  book  presents  as  notable  an  instance  of  the  growth  and  development 
of  a  fictionist  as  the  course  of  American  letters  has  presented." 

— Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle. 

Soldiers   of  Fortune 

Illustrated  by  Charles  Dana  Gibson,     izmo,  $1.50 

' '  The  work  of  a  mature  romancer,  writing  out  of  a  full  mind  and  sure  of 
his  ground." — New  York  Tribune. 

The  Lion  and  the  Unicorn 

Illustrated  by  Howard  Chandler  Christy.     i2mo,  $1.25 

"The  volume  is  delightful  through  and  through.     His  men  and  women 
have  hearts  .  .  .  therefore  they  appeal  to  a  wide  class  of  readers." 

—Boston  Herald. 

The  King's  Jackal 

Illustrated  by  Charles  Dana  Gibson.     I2mo,  $1.25 

"The  plot  is   an   exceedingly   clever   and   original    one,  unfolded   in   Mr. 
Davis's  inimitable  and  vivid  style." — New  York  Times. 


ev 


2> 


